COOL ORCHIDS. 83 
which the inexperienced are apt to think so easy. 
At the same cost others may be bought, which, 
coming from the highlands of hot countries, are 
used to a moderate damp in winter. 
Foremost of these, perhaps the oldest of cool 
orchids in cultivation, is C. zzsigne, from Nepal. 
Everyone knows its original type, which has grown 
so common that I remarked a healthy pot at 
a window-garden exhibition some years ago in 
Westminster. One may say that this, the early 
and familiar form, has no value at present, so many 
fine varieties have been introduced. A reader 
may form a notion of the difference when I state 
that a small plant of exceptional merit sold for 
thirty guineas a short time ago—it was C. insigne, 
but glorified. This ranks among the fascinations 
of orchid culture. You may buya lot of some 
common kind, imported, at a price representing 
coppers for each individual, and among them may 
appear, when they come to bloom, an eccentricity 
which sells fora hundred pounds or more. The 
experienced collector has a volume of such legends. 
There is another side to the question, truly, but it 
does not personally interest the class which I 
address. To make a choice among numberless 
stories of this sort, we may take the instance of 
C. Spicerianum. 
G 2 
