54 ABOUT ORCHIDS. 
his pen, can keep many hundreds of orchids in 
such health that he is proud to show them to ex- 
perts—with no help whatsoever beyond, in 
emergency, that which ladies of his household, 
or a woman-servant give—if he can do this, 
assuredly the pursuit demands little trouble and 
little expense. Iam not to lay down principles 
of cultivation here, but this must be said : orchids 
are indifferent to detail. There lies a secret. 
Secure the general conditions necessary for their 
well-doing, and they will gratefully relieve you of 
further anxiety ; neglect those general conditions, 
and no care will reconcile them. The gentleman 
who reduced my Cattleya to such straits gave him- 
self vast pains, it is likely, consulted no end of 
books, did all they recommend ; and now declares 
that orchids are unaccountable. It is just the 
reverse. No living things follow with such ob- 
stinate obedience a few most simple laws; no 
machine produces its result more certainly, if one 
comply with the rules of its being. 
This is shown emphatically by those cases which 
we do not clearly understand ; I take for example 
the strangest, as is fitting. Some irreverent zealots 
have hailed the Phalcenopsis as Queen of Flowers, 
dethroning our venerable rose. I have not to 
consider the question of allegiance, but decidedly 
