Teth: ORCHHEENIE 
Vor. XVI.] MAY, Pes [No. 185. 
DIES ORCHIDIANI. 
THE event of the month has been the great Quinquennial Show at Ghent, 
an event to which Orchidists as well as other horticulturists look forward 
with interest, and which on this occasion assumed a special importance 
because it also celebrated the Society’s Centenary. Orchids were, of 
course, well represented—no Show would be complete without them now- 
a-days—and the group of hybrid Odontoglossums exhibited by M. Ch. 
Vuylsteke surpassed any that has ever been staged. Over a hundred 
splendidly-grown plants, with long spikes of flowers of most exquisite 
shape and colouring, produced an effect beyond the power of mere words 
to describe, though I suppose something of the kind is attempted inthe 
report of the Show. ’ 
There was also a British group of surpassing excellence, staged by Major 
G. L. Holford, in the brilliant style with which frequenters of the big hall 
at Vincent Square are happily familiar, though I doubt whether its equal 
has ever been seen there. <A space of 300 square feet was filled with plants, 
remarkable alike for culture and richness and variety of colouring, combined 
with tasteful arrangement, and considering the long distance they had 
come, and the difficulties of transit, it must be admitted that the credit of 
British Orchid culture was worthily upheld. 
The Show itself is held under such totally different conditions from 
those of the Royal Horticultural Society, that I cannot help wondering 
what the result would be if such a Show could be held in England. Of 
course I am alluding to Orchids only, for which eighty-two classes were set 
apart, numerous Gold and Silver Medals and other prizes being offered, yet 
in two-thirds of them there were no exhibits, and in many cases only a 
single group. Prizes were offered for the best single specimen in no fewer 
than twenty-nine different genera, and yet twenty-two of these remained 
blank, a fact difficult to understand, for some of the genera were well repre- 
sented in the larger groups. Several of the larger classes were also 
unaccountably blank, including one for the best 100 exotic Orchids, in 
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