The Nature of Orchids 



no comparisons. Returning to Europe, he will 

 " put us out " by telling how he saw such and such 

 an orchid flourishing under conditions which we 

 had thought impossible. And then, perhaps, some 

 of his hearers try the experiment, at their cost. It 

 follows that the amateur should not be hasty to 

 accept the report of eyewitnesses in this matter. 

 Professionals need no warning at the present day. 

 In the natural state, as has been said, orchids 

 grow during the rainy season, which may be called 

 the winter of those lands in the sense that the air 

 is less hot though human beings find it more 

 oppressive sunshine is very much less frequent 

 and less powerful, and light duller ; but it 

 must always be remembered that a dull light in 

 the tropics is more luminous than our summer 

 maximum. Mr. H. J. Veitch offered some striking 

 figures on this point in his paper on " The Hybridi- 

 zation of Orchids," at the Conference of 1885. 

 Sunlight at the Equator falls nearly perpendicular 

 the year round, and throughout the tropics its 

 utmost inclination is slight ; but in our latitude, 

 at midsummer, the angle is as low as 28, and at mid- 

 winter it falls to 15. And this is not all. " Light," 

 says Mr. Veitch, " in passing through the atmosphere, 

 even under the most favourable circumstances, is 

 subject to absorption, and is intercepted by it ; but 



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