This is not a time of the year when one would expect many orchids in bloom; still I found a good many very interesting and beautiful to look at in a walk through the plants at the Botanic Gardens last week.

I was glad to renew my acquaintance with the lovely little Cypripedium niveum. It is a dwarf-growing variety with pretty foliage. The flowers have a peculiar satiny hue, are white on the inside, and prettily marked.

Cypripedium Stonei makes stems two feet high, and bears three or four lovely flowers on each. It lasts long in beauty and requires but little care.

Of Brassias I found a goodly number in bloom, although not so brilliant in color as others of the orchid family. I think these spider orchids are very interesting. They last long in perfection, and are very useful at this season.

I also found a very beautiful form of Cattleya Gaskelliana, darker than the type, with flowers five inches across.

Aerides odoratum majus, with great long spikes of flowers, was diffusing its fragrance through the house as usual.

Also Aerides Lobbii, with long, branching stems and numerous flowers, in which rosy pink and white predominate.

Dendrobeum Dearii is one of the very best white flowering dendrobes in cultivation, and if let alone will bloom pretty much all the time. It makes both terminal and lateral racemes of bloom, from both old and new stems. The individual flowers are butterfly-like, nearly three inches across, and last several weeks in good condition. It is highly prized by cultivators as an exhibition plant. Washington, D. C.