206 ABOUT ORCHIDS. 
few remain, in manageable quantities, just enough 
to adorn the tank with blue and rosy stars ; but it 
is arched over now with baskets as thick as they 
will hang—Dendrobium, Ccelogene, Oncidium, 
Spathoglottis, and those species which love to 
dwell in the neighbourhood of steaming water. 
My vocabulary is used up by this time. The 
wonders here must go unchronicled. 
We have viewed but four houses out of twelve, a 
most cursory glance at that! The next also is 
intermediate, filled with Cattleyas, warm Oncidiums, 
Lycastes, Cypripediums—the inventory of names 
alone would occupy all my space remaining. At 
every step I mark some object worth a note, 
something that recalls, or suggests, or demands a 
word. But we must get along. The sixth house 
is cool again—Odontoglossums and such; the 
seventh is given to Dendrobes. But facing us as 
we enter stands a Lycaste Skinner, which illus- 
trates in a manner almost startling the infinite 
variety of the orchid. I positively dislike this 
species, obtrusive, pretentious, vague in colour, and 
stiff in form. But what a royal glorification of it 
we have here !—what exquisite veining and edging 
of purple or rose; what a velvet lip of crimson 
darkening to claret! It is merely a sport of 
Nature, but she allows herself such glorious freaks 
