200 ABOUT ORCHIDS. 
ceases to astonish. I myself spent many months 
in the forests of Borneo, Central America, and the 
West African coast. After that experience I 
scarcely understand how such a quest, for a given 
object, can ever be successful unless by mere 
fortune. To look for a needle ina bottle of hay 
is a promising enterprise compared with the search 
for an orchid clinging to some branch high up in 
that green world of leaves. As a matter of fact, 
collectors seldom discover what they are specially 
charged to seek, if the district be untravelled—the 
natives, therefore, untrained to grasp and assist 
their purpose. This remark does not apply to 
orchids alone; not by any means. Few besides 
the scientific, probably, are aware that the com- 
mon Eucharis amazonica has been found only once ; 
that is to say, but one consignment has ever been 
received in Europe, from which all our millions in 
cultivation have descended. Where it exists in 
the native state is unknown, but assuredly this 
ignorance is nobody’s fault. For a generation at 
least skilled explorers have been hunting. Mr. 
Sander has had his turn, and has enjoyed the 
satisfaction of discovering species closely allied, as 
Eucharis Masters and Eucharis Sanderiana ; but 
the old-fashioned bulb is still to seek. 
In this third greenhouse is a large importation of 
