The Culture of Greenhouse Orchids 



challenging notice. But they stand alone, and the 

 conventional eye is not used to see blooms so 

 conspicuous, so intense of hue, dotted here and 

 there, each by itself. In a cluster now, people say, 

 or in a garland, like Odontoglots, Masdevallias 

 could be rivalled only in the gardens of Fairyland. 

 Solitary, they are too startling to please. Such, as 

 I gather, is the feeling which somewhat checks the 

 appreciation of their loveliness. 



It is not to be understood that a pot of Masde- 

 vallia yields only one flower. The scheme of 

 Nature provides that each leaf, as it attains 

 maturity in spring, should throw up a bloom, 

 That does not " come off " regularly, perhaps, even 

 at home, for we perceive that a slight mischance 

 may disconcert the arrangement ; but all the strong 

 growths will flower. 



Among the endless eccentricities of form shown 

 by orchids some are more striking than that of the 

 Masdevallia, but none more extraordinary. Dis- 

 sected under the microscope, the flower proves 

 to have three sepals and three petals, with one of 

 the latter modified into a " lip," like all the family. 

 But of this structure, one may say, nothing is 

 visible at a glance. What we see is the sepals 

 alone, expanded proportionately to the reduction 

 of the petals and lip, which can only be identified, 

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