﻿THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



Vol. XII.] AUGUST, 1904. [No. 140. 



DIES ORCHIDIANI. 



The Royal Horticultural Society has just celebrated its centenary by 

 opening its new Horticultural Hall, in Vincent Square, Westminster, 

 and I need make no apology for calling it a very important event in the 

 Orchid world. It will henceforth be the home of the Orchid Committee, 

 and the centre to which Orchidists will make their fortnightly pilgrimages. 

 The influence which the Royal Horticultural Society has exercised on 

 Orchid culture since its inauguration in March, 1S04. is incalculable. Had 

 it not at one time a very fine collection of its own ? Did it not send 

 numerous collectors in search of these, among other plants ? And was not 

 the great Dr. Lindley for many years one of its leading spirits ? And 

 coming down to modern times we find Orchids becoming of such 

 importance that in 1889 a special committee was appointed to deal with 

 them, the importance of whose work there is no need for me to 



I need not go into the history of the New Hall. Suffice it to say that 

 it has been built in commemoration of the Society's Centenary, and that 

 it was opened on Friday, July 22nd, by Their Majesties the King and 

 Queen, the occasion being a special one, and not accompanied by a show. 

 Before leaving the Hall the Queen was pleased to accept a bouquet of 

 Orchids from Lady Lawrence, into the composition of which, the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle observes, "entered, appropriately enough, Odonto- 

 glossum crispum, long known as O. Alexandras. This favourite Orchid 

 was discovered by Hartweg, one of the Society's collectors, and introduced 

 to cultivation by Weir, another of the Society's collectors." 



The first exhibition in the New Hall took place on the following 

 Tuesday, July 26th, and, besides the novelty of the occasion, was 

 interesting to Orchidists for two other reasons. One of these was the 

 appearance of Angrsecum infundibulare, from the collection of Lord 

 Rothschild, a remarkable species, which has not previously appeared in 



