COOL ORCHIDS. 65 
for centuries. Most other genera of orchid propa- 
gate so freely that wholesale depredations are 
made good in very few years. For reasons beyond 
our comprehension as yet, the Odontoglossum 
stands in different case. No one in England has 
raised a plant from seed—that we may venture to 
say definitely. Mr. Cookson and Mr. Veitch, 
perhaps others also, have obtained living germs, 
but they died incontinently. Frenchmen, aided 
by the climate, have been rather more successful. 
MM. Bleu and Moreau have both flowered seedling 
Odontoglots. M. Jacob, who takes charge of M. 
Edmund de Rothschild’s orchids at Armainvilliers, 
has a considerable number of young plants. The 
reluctance of Odontoglots to propagate is re- 
garded as strange; it supplies a constant theme 
for discussion among orchidologists. But I think 
that if we look more closely it appears consistent 
with other facts known. For among importations 
of every genus but this—and Cypripedium—a 
plant bearing its seed-capsules is frequently dis- 
covered ; but I cannot hear of such an incident 
in the case of Odontoglossums. They have been 
arriving in scores of thousands, year by year, for 
half a century almost, and scarcely anyone recol- 
lects observing a seed-capsule. This shows how 
rarely they fertilize in their native home. When 
F 
