AN ORCHID FARM. 203 
several which would demand all the space at my 
disposition, but, happily, one reigns supreme. 
This is a Cattleya Mossiw, the pendant of the 
Catasetum, by very far the largest orchid of any 
kind that was ever brought to Europe. For some 
years Mr. Sander, so to speak, hovered round it, 
employing his shrewdest and most diplomatic 
agents, For this was not a forest specimen. It 
grew upon a hich tree beside an Indian’s hut, near 
Caraccas, and belonged to him as absolutely as the 
fruit in his compound. His great-grandfather, 
indeed, had “ planted ” it, so he declared, but this 
is highly improbable. The giant has embraced 
two stems of the tree, and covers them both so 
thickly that the bare ends of wood at top alone 
betray its secret ; for it was sawn off, of course, 
above and below. I took the dimensions as accu- 
rately as may be, with an object so irregular and 
prickly. It measures—the solid bulk of it, leaves 
not counted—as nearly as possible five feet in 
height and four thick—one plant, observe, pulsat- 
ing through its thousand limbs from one heart ; at 
least, I mark no spot where the circulation has 
been checked by accident or disease, and the 
pseudo-bulbs beyond have been obliged to start an 
independent existence. 
In speaking of Lelia elegans, I said that those 
