INTRODUCTION. xiii 



word, of one kind or another, grow in all latitudes' 

 except the very coldest and the very driest, having 

 their maximum in the neighborhood of the equator 

 and their minimum in the extreme north, ceasing 

 only upon the threshold of the frozen zone. Let the 

 atmosphere be warm and pure and gently and plenti- 

 fully moistened, and they flourish ; damp without 

 warmth, foul air and stagnant water, they abhor ; 

 they never grow in pestiferous places, and in these 

 facts we find our first hints as to wise culture. 

 Every part of the world possesses its characteristic 

 species, and we might map it out into Orchid 

 provinces. Very curious features would arrest us 

 during the survey. How comes it, that those lovely 

 Asiatic Dendrobes, the peerless Phalaenopsids, and 

 many more of the orientals, so often have pendulous 

 stems, while in the Orchids of America we so gener- 

 ally find an erect habit of growth ? Why, again, is 

 there so much larger a variety of grotesque configura- 

 tion of flower in the Orchids of the Western conti- 

 nent than exists in those of the Eastern ? Why, yet 

 again, do the Cypripedes of cold and temperate coun- 

 tries often have leafy stems, while those of hot coun- 

 tries prefer leafless ones ? And, why in the whole 

 breadth of the world is there scarcely one absolutely 

 ^///^-flowered Orchid ? Many Orchids have a fine 

 blue spot, or wear an apron of blue silk, but an Or- 

 chid purely blue in every portion of the flower is said 

 to be found only in the HerscJiellia and the Thely- 

 mitra. One or two are named cceruleus and coeru- 



