172 THE WOODLANDS ORCHIDS 



to the rescue, and no class of orchid accepts his intervention 

 so readily. 



It is a pretty house, as I have said. Experienced 

 gardeners have a deep distrust of pretty houses. Picturesque 

 effect and good culture can seldom be reconciled ; the con- 

 ditions needed for the one are generally fatal to the other. 

 But here we have a pleasing exception. All is green and 

 fresh — no brickwork, nor shelves, nor pipes, nor ' tomb- 

 stone ' labels obtrude upon the view. The back wall is 

 draped with ferns and creepers, orchids peeping through here 

 and there. A broad stand down the middle, accommodating 

 five rows of Cypripediums on either side, has all its sub- 

 structures masked with tufa, which bears a mantle of green. 

 The side stands, each accommodating seven rows of pots, 

 are equally clothed in verdure, moss and fern. At the end, 

 through a glass partition open in the centre, is a fountain, 

 with similar stands all round it. And — an essential point, 

 whereby we understand the glorious health of all these 

 plants — there is not one which the gardener cannot see per- 

 fectly as he goes by, and reach without an effort, saving those 

 overhead in the middle. No chance of thrips flourishing 

 unsuspected in this house, nor of slugs following their horrid 

 appetite from pot to pot unnoticed. 



Since it is especially the number of rare ' garden mules ' 

 which have won us renown, I ought perhaps to say a word 

 in passing upon the matter of hybridisation. But what can 

 be said in a few lines ^ It is a theme for articles and books, 

 even in the hands of a smattering amateur like myself. The 

 public has no suspicion how far this novel manufacture has 

 been carried already. There is a hint in the tiny volume 

 compiled by Mr. R. H. Measures ' for private circulation,' 

 showing the number of hybrids in the genus Cypripedium 

 of which he could hear. It contains more than eleven 

 hundred items. Of these we have upwards of eight hundred 



