ORCHIDS. 55 
this is, upon the whole, the most interesting of all - 
orchids in the cultivator’s point of view. For 
there are some genera and many species that 
refuse his attentions more or less stubbornly—in 
fact, we do not yet know how to woo them. But 
the Phalcenopsis is not among them. It gives no 
trouble in the great majority of cases. For my- 
self, I find it grow with the calm complacency of 
the cabbage. Yet we are all aware that our 
success is accidental, ina measure. The general 
conditions which it demands are fulfilled, com- 
monly, in any stove where East Indian plants 
flourish ; but from time to time we receive a 
vigorous hint that particular conditions, not 
always forthcoming, are exacted by Phalcenopsis. 
Many legends on this theme are current; I may 
cite two, notorious and easily verified. The 
authorities at Kew determined to build a special 
house for the genus, provided with every comfort 
which experience or scientific knowledge could 
suggest. But when it was opened, six or eight 
years ago, not a Phalcenopsis of all the many 
varieties would grow in it; after vain efforts, Mr. 
Thiselton Dyer was obliged to seek another use 
for the building, which is now employed to 
show plants in flower. Sir Trevor Lawrence 
tells how he laid out six hundred pounds 
