86 ABOUT ORCHIDS. 
points the genus deserves to be a favourite. 
In the first place, it is the most interesting of all 
orchids to science.! Then its endless variations 
of form, its astonishing oddities, its wide range of 
hues, its easy culture, its readiness to hybridize 
and to ripen seed, the certainty, by comparison, 
of rearing the proceeds, each of these merits 
appeals to one or other of orchid-growers. Many 
of the species which come from torrid lands, 
indeed, are troublesome, but with such we are not 
concerned. The cool varieties will do well any- 
where, provided they receive water enough in 
summer, and not too little in winter. I do not 
speak of the American and Siberian classes, which 
are nearly hopeless for the amateur, nor of the 
Hong-Kong Cypripedium purpuratum, a very 
puzzling example. 
On the roll of martyrs to orchidology, Mr. Pearce 
stands high. To him we owe, among many fine 
things, the hybrid Begonias which are becoming 
such favourites for bedding and other purposes, 
He discovered the three original types, parents of 
the innumerable “garden flowers” now on sale— 
Begonia Pearciu, B. Veitchiz,and BL. Bolzviensis. It 
was his great luck, and great honour, to find 
Masdevallia Vettchiti—so long, so often, so labori- 
1 Vide “ Orchids and Hybridizing,” z/fra, p. 210. 
