This work is not of the class which needs a Preface. But to 

 the Editors of the Pall Mall Gazette, Sunday Times, Black 

 and White, Chambers's Journal, Wide Wide World, and 

 Badminton Magazine I am indebted for hcense to re- 

 publish my stories of Orchid -seeking, and it is pleasant 

 to acknowledge their courtesy. If those tales amuse the 

 general reader, I trust that other portions of the work will 

 be found not uninteresting, nor even unprofitable, by orchid- 

 growers. Plain descriptions of scarce species and varieties 

 are not readily accessible. A mere list of the hybrids in the 

 Woodlands collection would be found useful, pending the 

 issue of that international catalogue which must be under- 

 taken shortly ; but beyond this I have noted the peculiarities 

 of colour and form in such of the progeny as seemed most 

 curious. No doubt many experts will wish that I had 

 described some which are passed over and omitted some 

 described — without agreeing among themselves in either 

 case perhaps. But I have done my best. 



