146 
THE ORCHID WORLD. 
thick silvery skin, which is such a conspicuous 
material on the roots of orchids, is of great 
functional value, for, being of an absorptive, 
sponge-liKe nature, collects the rain or dew, 
and the inner portion of the root can then 
utilise the water thus obtained. 
As many of these aerial-rooted orchids are 
found growing at a considerable distance from 
the ground, it is essential that much of this 
absorbed moisture should be impregnated 
with nutriment. This can easily be obtained, 
for many of the orchids produce such a 
tangled mass of roots that a large quantity 
of organic debris is collected and slowly dis- 
solved in the surrounding moisture. 
Cattleya Trianae is one of the few plants 
which apparently delights more than any other 
Cattleya or Lselia in obtaining its nutriment 
atmospherically. Very many instances have 
been noticed where, in the case of pot-bound 
plants, the largest bulb is the one projecting 
over the rim of the pot, and thus being unable 
to root into the compost. It is possible that 
the roots within the pot are doing all the work 
of" collecting nutriment from the compost. In 
the celebrated Downside collection of Orchids 
there were, in the year 1887, two large speci- 
mens of Cattleya Trianae, one with 70 bulbs 
and 15 leads, the other wath 75 bulbs and g 
leads, which had been growing on rafts for 
four years without a particle of peat or sphag- 
num. They increased in size every year and 
flowered abundantly, their interleaved masses 
of live roots exhibiting the success of this 
method of cultivation. 
In a few instances the root-apex may be 
transformed into a shoot-apex. A case of this 
transformation occurs normally in the Bird's 
Nest Orchid (Neottia Nidus-avis), in which the 
root-cap is thrown off and a stem produced in 
its place. 
G. W. 
THE ORCHID MEDALS OF THE R( 
C ontiniicd 
The Lawrence Medal. 
AT the annual meeting of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, held on Feb- 
ruary 13th, 1906, the president. Sir 
Trevor Lawrence, Bart., K.C.V.O., V.M.H., 
completed the twenty-first year of his pre- 
sidency. To celebrate this event the Council 
resolved to invite all the Fellows to subscribe 
towards having his portrait painted by Pro- 
fessor Herkomer to place in the Society's new 
buildings, and also to establish in perpetuity 
)YAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
fro 111 p. Si. 
a large gold medal to be called " The 
Lawrence Medal," to be awarded to exhibits 
of a specially meritorious character at the 
Society's meetings, the want of such a medal 
having been felt for a very long time. It is 
only to be struck m gold, and is to be awarded 
independently by the direct vote of the 
Council, who will, as a rule, confine them- 
selves to not more than one medal a year. 
This Medal has only been awarded three 
times : first to Sir Trevor Lawrence, secondly 
to Lieut.-Col. Sir George L. Holford, and at 
the last annual meeting of the Royal Horti- 
cultural Society it was presented to Mr. Harry 
J. Veitch. 
The Council, having ascertained that the 
great majority of the firms who exhibit at the 
Society's shows do not desire to possess so 
many duplicate medals, have decided that the 
first time a trade firm wins a medal of any 
sort it will be engraved and forwarded, but 
no duplicate of that particular medal will be 
afterwards sent, except in the case of gold 
medals, which will always be sent if requested. 
