ORCHID NOMENCLATURE. 



CONFERENCE AT LIVERPOOL, 

 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30th, 1886. 



Sir TREVOR LAWRENCE, Bakt., President of 

 the Society, in the Chatr. 



The President, in opening the proceedings, said : Ladies and 

 Gentlemen, I must in the first place disclaim any desire, or any 

 pretence of being able to speak with authority in regard to 

 a purely botanical question, whatever that botanical question 

 may be ; but there are certain aspects in which the nomen- 

 clature of Orchids especially is affected by considerations more 

 strictly appertaining to horticulture, and, I may say, to some 

 extent to the domain of common sense, and upon which any- 

 body may very fairly give an opinion. The Orchid Conference 

 Committee was appointed at the Conference last year, but it has 

 not been able to do as much work as it might otherwise have 

 done owing to various circumstances into which I need not enter. 

 Some little while ago I wrote to Professor Reichenbach, ex- 

 pressing, on behalf of the Society, the hope that it might be 

 convenient to him to be present here to-day to give us the 

 assistance of his great knowledge and experience ; but, un- 

 fortunately, other engagements prevent him being here. I shall 

 call upon Mr. Ridley, who represents a very wide degree of 

 knowledge in connection with Orchids, and who is one of the 

 staff of the Natural History Museum, to give us an account of 

 the present position of the Orchid Committee, and what has 

 been done, and to add to that any remarks that he thinks 

 proper to the occasion. 



