Orchid Prices 



Eothschild's at Tring. A house there is devoted to 

 white ancepsy and some hundreds of spikes may be 

 seen at one time in the season. Or go to Baron 

 Schroder's at Egham. There also is a house full 

 of them ; in the place of honour, like a divinity 

 environed by angels, stands the great L. a. Schrode- 

 riana, with as many as sixteen spikes of its own." 



After this statement readers will perceive, I 

 trust, that any sum paid for an orchid, however 

 monstrous, may be reasonable. He who would 

 have an object of excessive rarity, which a large 

 proportion of the richest men on earth desire, must 

 outbid them, whether it be a plant or a picture. 

 But orchid-growers at large have no more personal 

 concern with these than with a canvas of Baffaele's 

 saving always the joyous privilege to hope that 

 such a marvel will turn up in their own small 

 collection. 



When I resolved to make my little book as useful 

 as possible by giving the price of orchids named 

 therein, it became necessary to choose a system. 

 One might obtain the quotations of the auction- 

 room without much trouble ; but, in the first place, 

 the majority of readers would be misled rather than 

 assisted by such returns, seeing that they do not 

 attend the sales nor want unestablished plants; in 

 the second, prices at auction vary from week to 



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