THE ORCHID REVI. 
VoL. XVI.| NOVEMBER, 1908. fNo. 191. 
ORCHIDS AT WESTONBIRT. 
WeEsTONBIRT is historic ground to the Orchidist. Over sixty years ago it 
contained a fine collection of Orchids, which was indeed contemporaneous 
with those of the illustrious James Bateman, of Knypersley, George 
Barker, of Birmingham, and others long since dispersed, and if little about 
it has been recorded, there still remain at Westonbirt a few plants which 
have been there for upwards of half a century. The name of “R. 5 
Holford, Esq., Weston Birt, Gloucestershire,” appears in the list of 
subscribers to Bateman’s big book, The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala, 
and it was here that, in 1843, the remarkable flower-spike appeared which 
Lindley described as “ bearing flowers of Cycnoches ventricosum and C. 
Egertonianum intermixed,” and of which the history was given last month 
(page 298). But it is with the modern development of the collection that 
we are now concerned, and having established a continuity with the past, 
which is certainly interesting, we may proceed. 
The present owner of Westonbirt, Lt.-Col. G. L. Holford, C.I.E., 
C.V.O., is the son of the gentleman just mentioned, and succeeded to the 
estate on the death of his father in 1892, from which period we may date 
the modern development of a collection which is to-day one of the finest 
and most progressive in existence. There are twenty-one houses devoted 
to Orchids, all of modern construction, and with the latest improvements. 
The principal range is a compact block, extending from a long corridor ; 
fifteen houses in all. They are built mostly of teak, and provided with 
slate staging, supported by iron framework, with sparred teak shelves on 
top of the staging. The uprights have a saucer-shaped base, which is filled 
with water to prevent insects from getting up to the plants. Water tanks 
in which a copious supply of rain-water 1s 
are provided here and there, nee 
heating and ventilation are ample, and the 
stored. The arrangements for : 
houses are furnished with lath blinds, supported by an iron framework 
about twelve inches from the glass. Instead of the usual second staging, 
we observed that a broad shelf was placed immediately over the hot water 
pipes, containing a layer of moist earth, which prevents the dry heat from 
reaching the plants direct, and allows a better circulation of air below the 
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