28 THE WOODLANDS ORCHIDS 



all. Individual taste may not always allow that claim, but 

 no one disputes that it is at least equal to the finest. 



But the thoughtful cannot contemplate these wondrous 

 things with satisfaction unalloyed. Unless some wealthy 

 and intelligent persons in South America undertake to 

 cultivate them in a regular way, it is too probable that in 

 a generation or two they will be utterly lost ; for we cannot 

 hope that the specimens in Europe will endure so long, 

 however vigorous they may be at present. Here is the 

 letter which accompanied the last consignment — sad reading, 

 as I think : — 



Medellin, January 27, 1896. 

 Messrs. F. Sander and Co., 

 St. Albans. 



Gentlemen — I arrived here yesterday from Alba Gumara and 

 received your much honoured letter of November ii, 1895. I shall 

 despatch to-morrow thirty boxes, tv^^elve of w^hich contain the finest 

 of all the aureas, the Monte Coromee form, and eighteen cases contain 

 the grand Sanderiana type, all collected from the spot where these 

 grow mixed, and I shall clear them all out. They are now nearly 

 extinguished in this spot, and this will surely be the last season. I 

 have finished all along the Rio Dagua, where there are no plants left ; 

 the last days I remained in that spot the people brought in two or 

 three plants a day and some came back without a single plant. I left 

 my boy with the Seiior Altados to explore while I despatched the 

 boxes and get funds, when I shall return for the var. papilio which 

 Altados promised to secure for me, and go on up to the spot called the 

 Parama San Sausa. In the boxes containing the aureas you will find 

 about 300 seedlings which have not flowered j these are from a grove 

 of trees where no plants have previously been gathered from, and 

 where the finest Sanderianas and aureas grow intermingled in one 

 family. These Cattleyas only flower once in a year — that is, from 

 March to the end of July, and both kinds together. Some of the 

 flowers measure upwards of 10 inches — and on a spike you can have 

 nine flowers. I cannot wait in that fearful region longer than the 

 flowering time ; the awfully wild aspect of everything and scarcity of 



