FLOWERS THAT NEVER FADE 21 



plants. These were seen by the botanist, 

 Prince Camille de Rohan, of Prague, who 

 was residing at Sichrow, near Aicha. He 

 was so pleased and impressed with their 

 extraordinary beauty and fidelity to nature 

 that he gave his gardener orders to supply 

 Blaschka with whatever plants he might 

 need for the prosecution of his studies. 

 Even the rarest orchids were to be placed 

 at his disposal. 



He was thus enabled by 1862 to com- 

 plete a collection of models in glass of 

 about sixty species of these valuable ex- 

 otics. After being exhibited during the 

 same year in the palace of Prince de Ro- 

 han at Prague, and during 1863 in the 

 Botanic Garden at Dresden, the collection 

 was sold to Professor Morren of Liege, and 

 finally found a resting-place in the Natural 

 History Museum in that city, where it was 

 unfortunately lost in the fire which de- 

 stroyed that building in 1863. 



The fate of these models and various 

 annoying circumstances connected with an- 

 other similar collection gave Blaschka such 

 a distaste for this branch of his work that 

 he ceased the production of glass models of 

 flowers, and turned his undivided attention 

 to the preparation of a collection of marine 

 invertebrates, consisting of models of sea- 

 anemones and similar forms of ocean life. 



