ORCHID CONFERENCE. 



51 



at the famed Chiswick Gardens, where in those days a good 

 collection of Orchids was to be found. Among the best exhibits 

 for many years appear those from Mrs. Lawrence's renowned 

 collection at Ealing Park, that home where our worthy President, 

 Sir Trevor Lawrence, first acquired that love for Orchids which 

 he has turned to such good account in forming and keeping up, 

 always in good condition, the best representative collection of 

 Orchids which was ever got together. 



Among the specimens exhibited in 1845-6-7 are enumerated : 

 from Mrs. Lawrence, Ealing Park, Amides odoratum, with 

 sixteen leading growths and between thirty and forty flower 

 spikes ; Cattleya crispa, with over twenty spikes ; Saccolabium 

 pramorsum, covered with bloom ; Epidendrum bicorrmtum, with 

 many spikes ; Oncidium ampliatum majus, with many spikes, 

 forming a head of golden flowers over four feet across ; and 

 Odontoglossum grande, quite worthy of being a leading plant in a 

 collection. J. H. Schroder, Esq., of Stamford Green, is also 

 credited with Calanthe veratrifolia, with eighteen spikes, and 

 many other fine plants. J. J. Blandy, Esq., with Saccolabium 

 guttatum, with eighteen flower spikes. E. S. Holford, Esq., of 

 Weston Birt, with Aerides odoratum, with twenty-seven to thirty 

 spikes. Sigismund Rucker, Esq., also produced specimens 

 which it is pleasant to read about ; and among other things, 

 Robert Hanbury, Esq., in November, 1845, exhibited a robust 

 plant of the autumn-flowering Cattleya labiata, with four spikes, 

 bearing sixteen flowers between them, and forming a specimen 

 which any of our best collections would be glad to give room to 

 at the present day. 



Of plants described as being very fine in different places forty 

 years ago, but which are yet rare, and in some cases the 

 specimens mentioned are not to be matched, are Renanthera 

 coccinea, in the gardens belonging to A. Palmer, Esq., at Cheam, 

 with seven panicles on a plant, each bearing from 100 to 110 

 flowers, and an equally good one of it in the possession of R. S. 

 Holford, Esq., on one of the panicles of which were one hundred 

 and seventeen of its showy scarlet flowers. Good specimens are 

 also mentioned of the yellow Calanthe curculigoidea from the 

 Straits of Malacca ; Angracum bilobum, with a dozen long flower 

 spikes ; the rose-coloured Eulophia guineensis ; and in the gardens 

 of the Horticultural Society, in 1847, &Lalia superbiens with nine 

 large heads of bloom. 



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