THE ORCHID WORLD. 



173 



when he went to look at the rare plant, he 

 found to his disgust that a snail had 

 made his breakfast off it — a most expensive 

 breakfast, many will say. I would advise 

 Orchid growers to give the slow-worm a trial. 

 They can be pui-chased from any dealer in 

 wild animals. — Dr. Palcrson, in The Garden, 

 January 28th, 1888. 



# ^ II 



Trade Notice. — Mr. E. J. Seymour, who 

 for the past nine years has been in the employ 

 of Messrs. Stuart Low and Co., will in future 

 act as representative for Air. Sidney Flory, 

 Orchid Nurseries, Amyand Park Road, 

 Twickenham. 



^ U 



The Highest Point of Culture. — Of 

 all the elements necessary to the proper 

 development of the parts of Orchideous 

 plants, none is of more importance than light. 

 This may seem strange to young beginners, 

 who will wonder, after this, why so much fuss 

 is made about shading. Now in this it 

 becomes the student of horticulture to make 

 a nice distinction. The direct action of 

 sunlight is one thing, its indirect or refracted 

 action another ; at least, as to its effects on 

 the perspiratory organs of the plant. Never- 

 theless, I am }>ersuaded that when these tribes 

 are in good health, unshaken by capricious 

 relapses in culture, they will endure, and enjoy 

 much more sunlight than has hitherto been 

 accorded them, especially when their early 

 growth is nearly completed, or say, towards 

 August and September. The present prac- 

 tice of suspending baskets over Orchids 

 growing in pots is not quite the thing to 

 promote the highest point of culture. To be 

 sure they are grown so, and grown well, too : 

 but this, I submit, is not the answer that will 

 long satisfy a public eager for progress. The 

 question will constantly recur in this, as in 

 other things, can these things be still better 

 done? Is there any room for further pro- 

 gress ? Any person looking, for mstance, at 

 Mr. Rucker's splendid collection, so admirably 

 managed by Mr. Mylam, might, at first sight, 

 imagine that the very summit of perfection 

 had been attained. It will not, however, be 



found so in the vegetable kingdom, to which 

 it would appear our gracious Creator has set 

 no bounds in this respect ; or if there be any 

 bounds, 1 am at a loss to conceive in which of 

 our vegetable productions it has become 

 manifest. — R. Erringion, 1850. 



NEW ORCHIDS. 



A recent issue of the Kew Bulletin 

 contains a thirty-eighth Decade of New 

 Orchids. The following species, with Latin 

 descriptions by Mr. R. A. Rolfe, are 

 mentioned : — 



PleurOTHALLIS REPENS, from S. Brazil. — 

 Found in a clump of Laslia purpurata, and 

 flowered m the collection of Sir Frederick 

 Wigan, Bart., in January, 1904. The sepals 

 and petals are pallid, striped with purple-red, 

 and the rest of the flower reddish-brown. 



Dendrobium (Ceratobium) Imthurnii, 

 from Solomon Islands. — A very robust 

 species, allied to D. antennatum, to which its 

 flowers bear a considerable resemblance, but 

 far more robust in every respect. It flowered 

 at Kew in August, 1 g 1 1 . 



BULBOPHYLLUM (OXYSEPAL/E) CON- 

 GESTUM, from Burma and S.W. China. — 

 Flowered m the Royal Botanic Gardens, 

 Glasnevin, in September, igiu. It is 

 markedly different from B. odoratissimum in 

 its smaller flowers, much shorter sepals, and 

 pale yellow, not brown lip, though in habit 

 the two are much alike. 



Cirrhopetalum Micholitzii, from 

 Annam. — Flowered at the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Glasnevin, and with Messrs. Stuart 

 Low and Co., in October, igio. The lateral 

 sepals are deep yellow, and the dorsal sepal 

 and petals blotched with dark purple on a 

 pale ground, or in one case the spots were 

 confluent into lines, but identical in other 

 respects. 



PoLYSTACHYA REPENS, from Tropical 

 Africa. — A minute and very distinct species 

 which flowered in the collection of Sir Trevor 

 Lawrence, Bart., in November, igii. The 

 creeping habit is remarkable and apparently 

 marks it as a much reduced member of the 



VOL. II. 



23 



