34 ORCHIDS. 



Species which in the wild state yield only two or three 

 curious blossoms, in cultivation have been brought to 

 produce from twenty to thirty, and in fact many plants of 

 the order submit to domestication as readily as our more 

 common garden flowers. 



There seems to be no reason why Orchid culture should 

 not be far more popular than at present ; already the 

 number of species and varieties have increased from the 

 thirty known in 1820, to many hundreds, and the future 

 opens a vast field of progress. The island of Java alone 

 produces over three hundred species and varieties, from 

 which it may be seen what immense additions may yet 

 be made to collections. This is the more probable, as 

 the Orchid growing countries have as yet been imper- 

 fectly explored, and when in this connection we consider 

 the peculiar local habits of most Orchids, we may reason- 

 ably look for large and rich additions to our Orchid flora. 



It must not be supposed that all of these many species 

 are equally beautiful. While we have many which for sin- 

 gularity of form, richness of color, and exquisite fra- 

 grance, excel all productions of the floral kingdom, there 

 are hundreds which are attractive only to the botanist, 

 and of which the flowers are insignificant ; but all are * 

 curious and interesting. 



We have said that in the general distribution of Or- 

 chidaceous plants, those of North America (excepting 

 always Mexico and the Isthmus) are wholly terrestrial ; 

 there is, however, one epiphyte met with in the extreme 

 Southern States, where a species of Epidendrum (. 

 conopseum) is found upon the Magnolia glanca. 



There is one cause which does much to retard Orchid 

 culture : the cost of the plant is so great, and the expense 



