57 
“ig Dr. Pfitzer, eae of Botany in the University of 
He id elberg, came to Kew to study in the Jodrell Laboratory the Kew 
—— of pese for oy Peik known researches on their morphology, 
as continued to draw on it since for further aid. 
" Dried herbarium specimens of orchids are not easily procurable. 
Species frequently flower at Kew of which no other material exists 
available for study. By this means the Herbarium of the Royal 
Gardens has been ¢ apaa enriched. And in this respect it is also 
under great obligations to Glasnevin, the Right Honourable Joseph 
Chamberlain, Sir Trevor peers an 
“ The task of exhibiting a collection of orchids to the public is not an 
y The dimensions of the houses which are suitable to their 
cultivation and the conditions which it requires are such as to preclude 
the admission of visiters. ‘This is o aweves, of the less ng as 
dem These houses a are not suited to the permanent cultivation of the 
bulk of the cohections which at other times is carri in the orchid 
its ( 
“The uin of orchids is one of the Gil reuiskcábie mente 
ments of modern horticulture. Kew has otko the means nor th 
The 
President of the Royal Horticultural Society in.1885 complained, in 
his o opening address to the Orchid Conference held in that year, that 
‘there is no sufficiently representative collection of orchids there (at 
Kew) at present.’ It is hoped that the yiii Hand-list, which 
enumerstes 200 genera and 1800 species (inelading about 50 garden 
hybrids), will remove that reproach as far, at any rate, as its representa- 
tive character is concerned. And it is only right to suy that in arriving 
at this result Kew is under great d to the liberality of Sir 
Trevor Lawrence, the Keeper of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, 
collection has, however, been built up by direct importation and 
purchase. 
Orchids have been continuously cultivated at Kew from their earliest 
introduction into this country. The varied fortunes which have attended 
the collection practically reflect the history of the progress which has 
been made in the art of growing orchids under artificial conditions, 
The first exotic orchid which was introduced into English gardens 
was Bletia verecunda, which was obtained from Providence Island, 
Bahamas, by Peter Collinson, in 1731, and flowered in the following 
1802 Francis Bauer, who was * resident draughtsman for fifty yeurs to 
the Royal Botanic .Garden,” discovered and figured the “ nucleus of 
the cell," an all-important "body, the first description of which was 
published by Robert Brown in 1833. 
In the first edition of Aiton's Hortus Kewensis 15 non-British species 
are enumerated as cultivated at Kew. Sir J. E. Smith wrote: “We 
