COOL ORCHIDS. 61 
experts in the past. It was a rule with growers 
formerly, avowed among themselves, to keep their 
little secrets. When Mr. B. S. Williams published 
the first edition of his excellent book forty years 
ago, he fluttered his colleagues sadly. The plain 
truth is that no class of plant can be cultivated so 
easily, as none are so certain to repay the trouble, 
as the Cool Orchids. 
Nearly all the genera of this enormous family 
have species which grow in a temperate climate, 
if not in the temperate zone. At this moment, 
in fact, I recall but two exceptions, Vanda and 
Phalcenopsis. Many more there are, of course— 
half a dozen have occurred to me while I wrote 
the last six words—but in the small space at 
command I must cling to generalities. We have 
at least a hundred genera which will flourish any- 
where if the frost be excluded ; and as for species, 
a list of two thousand would not exhaust them 
probably. But a reasonable man may content 
himself with the great classes of Odontoglossum, 
Oncidium, Cypripedium, and Lycaste ; among the 
varieties of these, which no one has ventured to 
calculate perhaps, he may spend a happy existence. 
They have every charm—foliage always green, a 
graceful habit, flowers that rank among the master 
works of Nature. The poor man who succeeds 
