THE 



GARDENER 



DECEMBER 1879. 



A FEW WORDS ABOUT ORCHIDS. 



HERE cannot be a doubt as to which family of tropical 

 plants is the most popular at the present time. Orchid- 

 culture has extended by "leaps and bounds" during 

 the last decade or two, and their star is still in the 

 ascendant. Amateurs who cultivate plants for recreation, and who 

 enjoy the labour of tending them with their own hands, have taken 

 to Orchid-culture in no inconsiderable numbers. In a great many 

 villa-gardens of comparatively small extent, Orchids have become 

 a specialty. They are imported by almost, if not quite, the million, 

 and find a ready sale at what must be remunerative prices, — and 

 the cry is, still they come, and still they sell. One large nursery 

 establishment, we are assured, could not make their general plant 

 trade pay, apart from its house-upon-house full of Orchids. Another 

 nurseryman tells us he can sell Orchids very often when he cannot 

 sell anything else, and rarely ever sends an Orchid in bloom to an 

 exhibition that he does not sell there and then. When any large 

 and valuable collection of Orchids is brought to the hammer on 

 account of the decease of its owner, or from any other cause, fanciers 

 come from nearly all parts of the country to pick up good plants or 

 good varieties at very high prices. We hear of a Vanda being bought 

 for 100 guineas, a Lycaste for somewhere about 50, and an Angraacum 

 at a similar price ; a Masdevallia for 30, and a morsel of a fine Vanda 

 caarulea at 10 guineas, and so forth. 



Can this state of things be indicative of good taste, and, as in the 

 case of superb paintings, a taste that is likely to be lasting 1 In 

 plants, as in most things, there is no doubt something in fashion, and 



2 o 



