SEPTEMBER, 1903.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. : 261 
ORCHIDS AT ST. ALBANS. 
THE great development which has taken place during recent years in 
the business of raising Orchids from seed has left its mark upon the 
well-known establishment of Messrs. Sander & Sons, St. Albans. 
Several additional houses have recently been built for the accommodation 
of the enormous number of seedlings which the establishment contains, 
and at the present time we find that two others are being entirely re- 
constructed and adapted to this purpose. The raising of Cattleyas and 
Lelias is being especially followed up, and nearly all the best combinations 
possible are now represented by batches of plants in various stages, from 
the smallest seedlings up to those in sheath, or by seed capsules not yet 
ripened. It was extremely interesting to go through the establishment and 
see the various stages of the work, but as we found over thirty houses more 
or less devoted to Orchids, seedling or imported, it is obvious that we can 
only mention a few of the more interesting features, and these we may 
enumerate in the order of our notes. 
In the first two houses we found chiefly small seedlings of Cattleya and 
Lelia up to about a year old, the younger pricked off for the second time 
into a compost of finely chopped peat fibre and sphagnum, and the others 
potted singly into leaf-mould. This is the practice adopted, and the seed- 
lings were as healthy and vigorous as could be wished, a remark which 
applies to the collection generally. 
The next four houses were largely devoted to Cypripedes, in various 
stages, some being in flower, among those noted being a well-coloured C.X 
enfieldense, forms of C. X Lord Derby, one bearing three fine spikes, each 
with three flowers, several C. X Transvaal in flower and bud, a spotted 
form derived from C. superbiens and C. tonsum, C. Curtisii x bellatulum 
bearing a two-flowered scape, a few early C. insigne, and the richly coloured 
C. X Hartisianum superbum, a plant said to be nearly always in bloom, 
and of which one plant now carried a twin-flowered scape. There were also 
numerous small seedlings germinating on the compost of the various plants, 
and between these and the flowering plants every stage of development 
was represented. 
Two cool houses came next, largely devoted to Odontoglossums, those in 
flower being a few O. crispum, O. X Adriane, O. Harryanum, a good form 
of the natural hybrid O. x lepidum, derived from O. Pescatorei and O. 
Lindleyanum, the spike bearing nine flowers, and the brilliant little 
Cochlioda Neetzliana. Others were in spike, and several good capsules told 
of hybridising operations. A little batch of Sophronitis grandiflora also 
carried over a dozen capsules. The next house was chiefly devoted to 
Miltonia vexillaria and M. Roezlii, which are found to succeed well 
