136 Bog-Trotting for Orchids 



in the tests made with the cultivated species, it is said 

 the seeds are a year in coming to maturity. These 

 fertile seeds need several months in which to germi- 

 nate, requiring, as wall be seen, some years to produce 

 seedlings old enough to blossom from the self-sowing 

 capsules of our w^ild native orchids. Furthermore, a 

 certain temperature and continuous moisture are abso- 

 lutely necessar>^ to produce seedlings. Our variable 

 Northern climate is one of the natural causes of hind- 

 rance to the production of native seedlings of this sen- 

 sitive famil3^ Continuous moisture does not prevail 

 long enough to promote perfect germination of the 

 thousands of seeds annually produced. They die in 

 embryo from lack of moisture during dry seasons; or 

 if developed, are frozen out in the ice-capped swamps 

 by our long, harsh winters; or in the tender seasons of 

 their seedling-hood the following years, are dwarfed 

 and die from drought. This, in part, is the explana- 

 tion of the lack of natural seedlings in our native 

 orchid haunts. Adding to this the destructiveness of 

 man, the beasts of the fields, worms, and storms, and 

 the tardiness of insects in fertilization, a hard struggle 

 lies in the perpetuation of the family's future genera- 

 tions. 



Orchids are spoken of as the "weeds of the tropics " ; 

 notwithstanding their devastation by the present or- 

 chid craze, — which far outstrips the tulip mania in 

 Holland two hundred and fifty j^ears ago, — in regions 

 where continuous heat and moisture prevail, germina- 

 tion of their fertile seeds is rapid and natural. 



