EN TRO Db CANO ANS 
Ar the time (1864) when this M.onograph was commenced, the successful application of the 
system of cool treatment to Orchids accustomed to a moderate temperature in their native 
haunts gave a fresh impulse to the cultivation of that charming tribe of plants. By its means,what 
might almost be regarded as a new Orchid-world, teeming with interest and beauty, was suddenly 
brought within our reach. A fresh field was opened to the enterprise of collectors, the spirits 
of cultivators revived, and the hopes of botanists mounted high. Foremost among the spoils 
that we sought to secure, stood the various members of the genus ODONTOGLOSSUM, which from 
the days of Humboldt* and Lexarza, was known to abound in species pre-eminent for the 
loveliness and delicacy of their flowers but which had hitherto mocked the utmost efforts of our 
most skilful growers. For although (thanks to the labours of Warezewitz and Lobb) the Horti- 
cultural Society and Messrs. Veitch had more than once received large consignments of Orchids 
—among which were many Odontoglossa—from the mountain ranges of New Grenada and 
Peru, they had invariably succumbed under the stifling atmosphere to which, in common with 
the denizens of India, Guiana, or Madagascar, they were remorselessly consigned. Here and 
there, indeed, an accidental success was achieved in a greenhouse, but the hint was turned to no 
account, and as a rule—notwithstanding the repeated warnings and remonstrances of Mr. Skinner, 
Warczewitz, and others—for thirty years we persisted in the incredible folly of growing “ cool” 
Orchids in “hot” stoves; so deeply rooted in the minds of horticulturists was the original prejudice ! 
But it yielded at last, and no sooner had a few houses—constructed and managed on the cool- 
culture system—made it clear that the Orchids of temperate regions were prepared to submit to 
the skill of the cultivator, than a general raid was made upon the more accessible countries in 
which they were known to abound—more especially certain districts in Mexico and New 
Grenada. To the latter country, collectors were simultaneously sent off by the Horticultural 
Society, who despatched Mr. Weir; by Mr. Linden, of Brussels; and by Messrs. Low, of the 
Clapton Nursery ; and all these rival envoys, much to their own mortification and chagrin, 
found themselves sailing for the same destination in the same steamer on the same errand ! 
It was now that the idea occurred to me of devoting a work of adequate dimensions to the 
illustration of the particular genus, which from the dried specimens in our herbaria, the plates 
in Pescatorea, the figures of Humboldt, and the descriptions of travellers was evidently destined 
to hold the first place among all the numerous company of cool Orchids; and thus began the 
The mention of the illustrious traveller’s name reminds me of the obligations under which he laid me when I first visited Berlin 
, 
in the spring of 1836; for, young as 1 was, he deigned to pour into my delighted ears all the stores of Orchid-lore collected during 
his memor 7 ‘i ` New j i 
orable wanderings among the Andes of New Grenada and Peru. Here, he said, the greatest store of beauteous Orchids 
was to be found, and we are now beginning to realize the truth of his remark. 
