AN ORCHID FARM. 189 
announcing fifty more from Mexico, that will 
reach Waterloo at 2.30 p.m. Great is the wrath 
and great the anxiety at this news, for some one 
has blundered; the warning should have been 
despatched three hours before. Orchids must not 
arrive at unknown stations unless there be some- 
body of discretion and experience to meet them, 
and the next train does not leave St. Albans until 
2.44 p.m. Dreadful is the sense of responsibility, 
alarming the suggestions of disaster, that arise 
from this incident. 
The Burmese cases in hand just now are filled © 
with Dendrobiums, crassinode and Wardianum, 
stowed in layers as close as possible, with D. 
Falconertt for packing material. A royal way of 
doing things indeed to substitute an orchid of 
value for shavings or moss, but mighty con- 
venient and profitable. For that packing will 
be sent to the auction-rooms presently, and will 
be sold for no small proportion of the sum which 
its more delicate charge attains. We remark that 
the experienced persons who remove these pre- 
cious sticks, layer by layer, perform their office 
gingerly. There is not much danger or un- 
pleasantness in unpacking Dendrobes, compared 
with other genera, but ship-rats spring out oc- 
casionally and give an ugly bite; scorpions and 
