378 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



LESSER KNOWN ORCHIDS. 

 By F. W. Moore, V.M.H. 

 [Lecture given September 3, 1907.] 



A mere enumeration of the names of orchids which are uncommon in 

 cultivation, and perhaps also in their native countries, would, I fear, be 

 of little interest in a paper such as this, and even if botanical descriptions 

 and references were added it would only be duplicating information 

 which can be obtained from special lists, floras, and other descriptive 

 works. On consideration I have decided to confine my remarks to rare 

 or uncommon orchids having some special feature to recommend them, 

 and also to such species that I am able to illustrate by slides made from 

 specimens of the actual living plants, and in each case from plants in the 

 Glasnevin collection. This will necessarily very much limit the scope 

 of the paper, the more so as I have only had from February to August of 

 the current year, 1907, to get the slides prepared. All orchid-growers 

 know only too well that orchids will not flower to order, and, in fact, in 

 some cases it is often difficult to get them to flower at all. They may 

 be hastened by a few weeks, or retarded by a few weeks, but, practically 

 speaking, there the matter ends, and any erratic departure from the usual 

 season of flowering is viewed with suspicion by growers, as probably indi- 

 cating that all is not well with the plant. 



In the definition "special feature" I include a wide range, such as 

 orchid giants, orchid pigmies, orchids with peculiar habit of growth, such 

 as a pendulous habit, orchids of remarkable appearance, orchids requiring 

 special treatment, orchids with peculiar structure of flower, and orchids 

 which have masqueraded in the names of other orchids, and have been 

 generally known under the wrong name. I find a further difficulty in 

 the fact that almost the identical subject matter has been dealt with 

 some few years ago by one of the ablest orchid-growers of the present 

 generation, and one who had the finest collection in existence to 

 draw on for his material. On March 26, 1901, Mr. W. H. White read 

 before your Society a paper on " Inconspicuous and Rarely Cultivated 

 Orchids," which is published in the " Journal " for August 1901, p. 136. 

 On carefully reading over that paper I find that Mr. White has gone so 

 fully into uncommon orchids that practically he has left little for me to 

 say, and I found that several slides which I had prepared had to be put 

 aside, as Mr. White has dealt fully with the plants. No genus of orchids 

 seems to have escaped his vigilance. 



My special pets, the Masdevallias, are fully dealt with, and such genera 

 as Bulbophyllum, Cirrhopetalum, Megaclinium, Pleurothallis, and Re- 

 strepia have been abundantly drawn on. 



In orchids, generally, there is great variety in the formation of the 

 flower, and although there may be general conformity to a plan, the 

 variations within the limits necessary to bring any one plant into the 



