AN ORCHID FARM. 
My articles brought upon mea flood of questions 
almost as embarrassing as flattering to a busy 
journalist. The burden of them was curiously 
like. Three ladies or gentlemen in four wrote 
thus: “I love orchids. I had not the least sus- 
picion that they may be cultivated so easily and 
so cheaply. I am going to begin. Will you 
please inform me”—here diversity set in with a 
vengeance! From temperature to flower-pots, 
from the selection of species to the selection of 
peat, from the architecture of a greenhouse to the 
capabilities of window-gardening, with excursions 
between, my advice was solicited. I replied as 
best Icould. It must be feared, however, that the 
most careful questioning and the most elaborate 
replies by post will not furnish that ground-work 
of knowledge, the A B C of the science, which is 
needed by a person utterly unskilled ; nor will he 
find it readily in the hand-books. Written by 
men familiar with the alphabet of orchidology 
