2 ORCHIDS 
for his plants, did not venture to dream even of becoming 
the possessor of a little collection of Orchids. 
All this, however, has been completely changed. Orchids 
are now successfully imported by the thousand at so small 
a cost as to admit of their being sold at a few shillings 
per dozen. Their cultural requirements are, in the majority 
of cases, now thoroughly understood. So simple are these, 
that instead of costly houses and a heavy expenditure in 
fuel and labour, a large number of beautiful kinds may 
be grown in the simplest greenhouse, with no artificial 
heat, except perhaps for a month or two in winter. The 
skill and labour necessary for the successful management 
of Orchids generally are at most no more than is required 
by the common stock plants of the greenhouse. When 
once the general conditions necessary are properly under- 
stood, the cultivation of a collection of these plants 
demands little trouble and little expense. 
An amateur who has been successful in the management 
of Orchids has lately published some excellent observations 
on the art of growing them.* He says: “It would be 
wrong to leave the impression that Orchid-culture is 
actually as facile as market gardening; but we may say 
that the eccentricities of Phalenopsis and the rest have 
no more practical importance for the class I would persuade, 
than have the terrors of the deep for a Thames waterman. 
How many thousand householders about this city have a 
‘bit of glass’ devoted to geraniums and fuchsias and 
the like! They started with more ambitious views, but 
successive disappointments have taught modesty, if not 
despair. The poor man now contents himself with any- 
thing that will keep tolerably green, and show some 
spindling flower. But such species of Orchid as he might 
grow would give infinitely greater satisfaction. For a few 
* F. Boyle, in Longman’s Magazine, February, 1888. 
