AN ORCHID FARM. 201 
Cattleya Triane, which arrived so late last year 
that their sheaths have opened contemporaneously 
with C. Mosste. I should fear to hazard a guess 
how many thousand flowers of each are blooming 
now. As the Odontoglossums.cover their stage 
with snow wreaths, so this is decked with upright 
plumes of Cattleya Triane, white and rose and 
purple in endless variety of tint, with many a 
streak of other hue between. 
Suddenly our guide becomes excited, staring at 
a basket overhead beyond reach. It contains a 
smooth-looking object, very green and fat, which 
must surely be good to eat—but this observation 
is alike irrelevant and disrespectful. Why, yes! 
Beyond all possibility of doubt that is a spike 
issuing from the axil of its fleshy leaf! Three 
inches long it is already, thick as a pencil, witha 
big knob of bud at the tip. Such pleasing sur- 
prises befall the orchidacean! This plant came 
from Borneo so many years ago that the record is 
lost ; but the oldest servant of the farm remembers 
it, as a poor cripple, hanging between life and 
death, season after season. Cheerful as interest- 
ing is the discussion that arises. More like a 
Vanda than anything else, the authorities resolve, 
but not a Vanda! Commending it to the special 
care of those responsible, we pass on. 
