Excerpt from Hand-List of Orchids, Cultivated in the Royal Botanic Gardens

Dried herbarium specimens of orchids are not easily procurable. Species frequently flower at Kew of which no other material available for study exists. By this means the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens has been continuously enriched. And in this respect it is also under great obligations to Glasnevin, the Right Honourable Joseph Chamberlain, Sir Trevor Lawrence and others.

The task of exhibiting a collection of orchids to the public is not an easy one. The dimensions of the houses which are suitable to their cultivation and the conditions which it requires are such as to preclude the admission of visitors. This is, however, of the less consequence, as when out of flower their general aspect for the most part is not, except perhaps to the expert, either instructive or interesting. The two public orchid houses at Kew, Nos. 13 and 14, contain for the most part only the plants which happen to be in flower at any particular period. These houses are not suited to the permanent cultivation of the bulk of the collections which at other times is carried on in the orchid pits (no. To which the public is not admitted.

The cultivation of orchids is one of the most remarkable developments of modern horticulture. Kew has neither the means nor the accommodation to compete with the magnificent displays of certain species to be Seen in' the gardens of many private growers. The President of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1885 complained, in his Opening address to the Orchid Conference held in that year, that there is no sufficiently representative collection of orchids there (at'kew) at present. It ishoped that the present Hand-list, which enumerates 200 genera and 1800 species (including about 50 garden hybrids), will remove that reproach as far, at any rate, as its representative character is concerned. And it is only right to say that in arriving at this result Kew is under great obligations to the liberality of Sir Trevor Lawrence, the Right Honourable Joseph Chamberlain, the Keeper of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, and various private growers and commercial firms, especially amongst the latter Messrs. F. Sander Sons, of St. Albans, and Messrs. James Veitch Sons, at Chelsea. The bulk of the collection has, however, been built up by direct importation and purchase.

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