THE RARE FORMS OF ORCHIDS. 



361 



few years, and are sold at reasonable prices ; and the business of 

 dealing in them returns little profit unless some of the rarer vari- 

 eties are on the list. 



While it is difficult and dangerous to go to their native haunts 

 for orchids, it is not much more easy to possess the rarer varieties 

 in cultivation; for, while the care of adult plants is compara- 



Fig. 1. Orchids, Caitleya nossia (bluish mauve). 



tively easy, the raising of the seedlings is attended for many years 

 with almost insurmountable difficulties. But cultivators have 

 become possessed with the idea that it would be well to imitate 

 with species selected for their beauty and good forms the acci- 

 dental hybridizations of the forests. Many have tried ; a few have 

 succeeded. One of the first among these was M. Bleu, General Sec- 

 retary of the French Horticultural Society. He cross-fertilized, 

 sowed the seeds, and raised young plants. To appreciate the diffi- 

 culties of these operations, they must be followed out. In the first 

 place, the seeds are so fine that they can not be seen without a 

 strong glass ; they are sown on the bark of trees or in chopped 

 moss ; and they are transplanted when the plants are so small 

 that the work has to be done by the aid of a magnifier. These 

 material difficulties are still as nothing compared with the care 

 that has to be given the nurslings to secure a good development 

 of them. The cultivator may consider himself fortunate if he gets 

 a few dozen good plants out of several thousand seedlings. 



Orchids in all their varieties of aspect and form have very dif- 



vol. xxxvi. 23 



