SECOND BANQUET TO GARDENERS. 67 
claim that they have found anywhere traces of them. 
They have found flowers, but no orchids. But I am not 
going to detain you in talking about the formation and 
origin of the orchid, or about its construction or repro- 
duction, or anything technical. To my notion, having 
succeeded comparatively well myself, it is a very strange 
thing that instead of there being one thousand orchid 
growers in the United States there are not ten thou- 
sand. Because, after one has once acquired a knowl- 
edge of the conditions surrounding them in their native 
habitat, the rest is the simplest thing in the world. It is 
nothing in the world but common sense. To illustrate 
what I mean, in St. Louis, the rainfall is, perhaps, 50 
inches; you must multiply that twelve times to get the 
necessary amount of moisture for an orchid. In its native 
habitat, in Burmah, the rainfall, I understand, is about 
600 inches a year. The plants simply anchor themselves 
to something and live upon the atmosphere and the moisture. 
It is absolutely necessary to their health and well being that 
it must be clean moisture. They are very fastidious, and 
not only must they have air, but it must be pure air, and 
therefore a hot house would have to be so constructed as 
to afford the requisite degree of moisture and the proper 
atmosphere or ventilation. For example, an ordinary 
green house is better adapted in my judgment to the culti- 
vation of the orchid than these large frame hot houses with 
curvilinear roofs. <A house 16 feet wide, with a low roof, 
not over 12 feet high, the floors of earth, with walks ce- 
mented, and, if possible, an open tank in the center, with 
the shelving covered with either shingles or coarse gravel 
or broken cinders with the ashes all sifted out of them, is 
the best for the purpose. The ventilation should be well 
taken care of, because, as I have said, they are particular 
about the air they breathe. 
There are over six thousand varieties known to collect- 
ors, and a third of that number, I believe, could be grown 
by an ordinary person who loves the plants and is willing 
