Ti eee REVIEW, 
Vou. Xi JANUARY, 1903. [No. 121. 
A DECADE OF ORCHID LORE. 
THE last number having completed the tenth annual volume of the Orchid 
Review, I feel that the occasion should not be allowed to pass without a 
word of appreciation and encouragement to the Editor for his most useful 
work. The single numbers, as they arrive each month in their familiar 
covers, are apparently a simple monthly review of Orchid lore, giving us the 
current news of the Orchid world, and all the new and up-to-date informa- 
tion that we require, both cultural and scientific. But when the December 
Index number arrives, and we bind up the twelve single numbers into one 
volume, we begin to realize that the work is a permanent work of great 
value, being indeed a mine of information, with its accurate records of facts 
and critical observations, based upon patient and original research. The 
mystic letters R.A.R., often appended to an article, are always a guarantee 
of matured thought and ripe experience, and when sometimes these magical 
initials are suspended, we all recognize the master hand, which, however 
skilful it may be, cannot conceal itself in anonymity. 
Now that the single volume has grown into ten, the realization of the 
permanent value of the work has also increased tenfold, and it is with the 
greatest satisfaction that we now contemplate their completion. 
It is quite impossible in a short note like this to even mention a few of 
the interesting and salient features of the past ten volumes, nor is there any 
need to do so, for do they not all speak eloquently for themselves. But 
one I think will serve for all, and that is the annual Index. In this special 
feature the Orchid Review is a model to its compeers as a work of precision, 
its Index being at once comprehensive and accurate. As a_ practical 
illustration of this, I may say that, so far as I know, the Review 
Index is the only concise key we have to the records of the new 
hybrid Orchids exhibited at the Meetings of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, and what this means can perhaps be best appreciated 
by the unfortunate compilers of the forthcoming Orchid Stud Book, 
And this is but one small instance among many where the Review 
Index serves to lighten the labours of the student, who in _ his 
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