Author: Royal Botanic GardensPublisher:
ISBN: 9781331952282
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
Excerpt from Hand-List of Orchids, Cultivated in the Royal Botanic Gardens The collection of orchids cultivated at Kew is essentially different from any, at least in this country, in the possession of a private collector, and perhaps its only serious rival is that of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. Its main object is botanical and to represent the family Orchidece in as comprehensive a way as possible. The scientific interest attaching to orchids is very great. But even as regards form they can only be studied from dried specimens with great difficulty, and as regards their varied and remarkable structural arrangements and the striking mechanical contrivances for cross-fertilisation which they exhibit, they cannot be studied at all in the dried state. While the Kew collection contains representatives of all the most beautiful and popular species, it is more particularly rich in others which at first sight are not particularly attractive. Most of these, however, on careful examination will be found to possess no small degree of charm and interest. In 1880, Dr. Pfitzer, Professor of Botany in the University of Heidelberg, came to Kew to study in the Jodrell Laboratory the Kew collection of orchids for his well-known researches on their morphology and he has continued to draw on it since for further aid. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.