COOL ORCHIDS. 87 
ously searched for from that day to this, but never 
even heard of. To collect another shipment of 
that glorious orchid, Mr. Pearce sailed for Peru, in 
the service, I think, of Mr. Bull. Unhappily—for 
us all as well as for himself—he was detained at 
Panama. Somewhere in those parts there is a 
magnificent Cypripedium with which we are ac- 
quainted only by the dried inflorescence, named 
planifolium. The poor fellow could not resist this 
temptation. They told him at Panama that no 
white man had returned from the spot, but he went 
on. The Indians brought him back, some days or 
weeks later, without the prize; and he died on 
arrival. 
Oncidiums also are a product of the New World 
exclusively ; in fact, of the four classes most useful 
to amateurs, three belong wholly to America, and 
the fourth in great part. I resist the temptation 
to include Masdevallia, because that genus is not 
so perfectly easy as the rest ; but if it be added, 
nine-tenths, assuredly, of the plants in our cool 
house come from the West. Among the. special 
merits of the Oncidium is its colour. I have heard 
thoughtless persons complain that they are “all 
yellow ;” which, as a statement of fact, is near 
enough to the truth, for about three-fourths may 
be so described roughly. But this dispensation is 
