THE 
Wilderspool Collection. 
WARRINGTON, 
LANCASHIRE. 
ABOUT midway between Manchester 
and Liverpool is the large town of 
Warrington, through which now runs 
the Manchester Ship Canal. Alongside this 
celebrated water- 
way, and at a 
place where an 
old Roman road 
has been dis- 
covered, may be 
found the resi- 
dence and Orchid 
houses of Wm. 
Bolton, Esq., who 
for the long 
period of 30 
years has been 
a member of the 
Town Council, an 
Alderman since 
1894, and Mayor 
for three suc- 
cessive years, 
1903-6. 
Mr. Bolton's 
connection with 
Orchids dates 
from 1869, when 
he received from 
his uncle, Mr. 
Samuel Barlow, 
of S t a k e h i 1 1 , 
Middleton, several young plants from the tops 
of Dendrobium nobile, and a few pieces of 
Cypripedium insigne. In 1872 he sold the 
greenhouses and plants, and departed for 
America. Returning, some two years later, he 
took an interest in florist's flowers, won the 
Turner Memorial Prize for seedhng auriculas 
long, 
night 
heating 
Alderman Wm. Bolton. 
at the Royal Horticultural Society, April, 1887, 
and at the same show received a First-class 
Certificate for auricula Samuel Barlow. 
Mr. Samuel Barlow's collection of Orchids 
always attracted 
Mr. Bolton's 
attention, and 
induced him, in 
1883, to recom- 
mence their 
culture. This 
new collection, 
however, did not 
exist for 
One cold 
the 
apparatus failed, 
and all the plants, 
with the excep- 
tion of a few 
Odontoglos s u m 
Rossii, were 
frozen to death. 
Mr. Arthur 
Potts, of Chester, 
after whom a 
variety of 
Catasetum 
Bungerothii is 
named, sent a 
large number of 
O d ontoglossums 
to Mr. Bolton, but this time, owing to the high 
temperature of the houses, failure again 
resulted. 
At the dispersal of the Ainsworth collection 
Mr. Bolton acquired the majority of the 
Vandas and Aerides, but these being found 
difficult to grow, were soon after presented to 
