Orchids

About this book

Language: Bilingual in English and Chinese

From the afterword:

"The first edition of this album came out in print in 1993. Before that we had invited Zhang Qitai and Yang Zenghong from Kunming Botany Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Feng Zhizhou from the Yunnan Academy of Forestry Sciences to take colour photos of Chinese orchids during their field work. Their hard work laid the foundation for this album. Considering that artificially bred orchids isolated from their original natural environment may, more or less, change their shapes and features, we selected for inclusion only photos of the species growing in the wild or samples directly collected from the wildemess. No artificially bred or propagated species were included. Since the publishing of the first edition of this book, the field work of botanists has never terminated and new genera and species are being constantly discovered. To satisfy our readers’ demands, we have utilised the opportunity of the revision of this book to replace inaccurate terms or erroneous pictures and, at the same time, add new genera and
species. The revised album contains 202 colour photos covering 191 species in 64 genera. For technical reasons, the newly added section starts with page 170, and is designed in the same order we adopted for the first edition. We have arranged the different genera of orchids according to the general principle of systematic botany, i. e., floral evolution from the lower to the higher orders. Different species belonging to the same genera are arranged alphabetically so as to facilitate a readers’ reference.

ln this album we have provided professional readers with representative photos and data about Chinese orchids, but we have undertaken no further exploration or study of the orchids themselves. We hope the book will nevertheless be of some help to scientists. To remove the barrier for non-professionals, we have discarded all professional problems and details so as to make it as simple and concise as possible. In selection of photos, we chose the most original and beautiful pictures, with the exception of some especially
rare genera and species, so that each picture will provide readers with an aesthetic treat."

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