xiv PREFACE. 
for which I am indebted to the proprietors of that 
stately work. 7 
I do not give detailed instructions for culture. No 
one could be more firmly convinced that a treatise 
on that subject is needed, for no one assuredly 
has learned, by more varied and disastrous ex- 
perience, to see the omissions of the text-books. 
They are written for the initiated, though designed 
for the amateur. Naturally it isso. A manwho 
has been brought up to business can hardly re- 
sume the utter ignorance of the neophyte. Un- 
consciously he will take a certain degree of know- 
ledge for granted, and he will neglect to enforce 
those elementary principles which are most im- 
portant of all. Nor is the writer of a gardening 
book accustomed, as a rule, to marshal his facts 
in due order, to keep proportion, to assure himself 
that his directions will be exactly understood by 
those who know nothing. 
The brief hints in “ Reichenbachia ” are admir- 
able, but one does not cheerfully refer to an 
authority in folio. Messrs. Veitch’s ‘“ Manual of 
Orchidaceous Plants” is a model of lucidity and a 
mine ofinformation. Repeated editions of Messrs. 
B. S. Williams’ “ Orchid Growers’ Manual” have 
proved its merit, and, upon the whole, I have no 
hesitation in declaring that this is the most useful 
