THE DEVELOPMENT OF OECHID CULTIVATION AND 

 ITS BEARING UPON EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES.^ 



By J. COSTANTIN. 



When crowds throng our horticultural exhibitions they are struck 

 chiefly by the brilliant splendor of color, the rich variety of forms, 

 and the strange transformations produced in the vegetable kingdom 

 by the art of the plant breeder ; but they are often incapable of appre- 

 ciating the true importance of all the wonders displayed before their 

 gaze. Even a philosopher who had a profound knowledge of the 

 affairs of nature would find, in a visit to such an exhibition, material 

 for reflections of deep import, and the conclusions resulting from his 

 inspection would deserve the attention of the public at large and of 

 all men who think. 



Unfortunately, the philosopher rarely takes the pains to acquire 

 the knowledge possessed by the specialist, and the specialist gen- 

 erally concerns himself but little with general theories, with the 

 result that all those who seek knowledge remain in ignorance. Let 

 us attempt, despite the difficulty of the subject, to assist them in 

 their search. 



To render our task less difficult let us limit our attention to the 

 most brilliant corner of the exposition, and everyone will understand 

 at once that we are to speak of that devoted to the orchids. It is, 

 in fact, the section where the visitors are most numerous; it is there 

 that they see the most beautiful flowers and sometimes the most 

 strange ones, and it is there that we find the part whose significance 

 the public understands least. 



What at once strikes anyone who examines the orchids is the 

 bizarre aspect of these plants — their slender forms, their thick, 

 fleshy leaves, their aerial roots, their bulbous bases, all contrasting with 

 the incomparable brilliance of their corollas. Everyone still feels 

 something of the sensations, so well described by de Puydt,^ which 

 were experienced by visitors to the orchid houses long ago when these 



1 Translation of " Les progr&s de la culture des fleurs et leur importance pour les 

 theories transformistes," by J. Costantin, by permission of the editors, from Scientia, 

 International Review of Scientific Synthesis, published by Williams & Norgate, London, 

 No. 3, 1911. 



- De Puydt, I.es Orchid^es, p. 16. 



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