THE GARDEN WEEK BY WEEK 



Feb. should go on to a shelf, and they will then make good 

 15-28 plants speedily. 



Orchids 



Growers of Orchids have a great advantage over 

 mere everyday plant lovers in that they get the prin- 

 cipal part of their bloom in winter and spring, when 

 less aristocratic flowering plants are in a minority. We 

 cannot get away from the overpowering claims of 

 Orchids ; we can only pass them by on the plain, 

 honest, straightforward ground that we cannot afford 

 them. 



Orchids have every beauty that a plant can possess. 

 They have great diversity of form, infinite variety of 

 colour, and perfume. The hues have an indescribable 

 delicacy of tone, which distinguishes them from most 

 non-orchidaceous flowers. The reds have the flaming 

 intensity of volcanic fires, the creams have the density 

 of old ivory, the blues have the appealing softness of 

 southern skies. 



Nature has taxed her ingenuity to the utmost in 

 designing Orchid flowers. They have been constructed 

 with a marvellous cunning. The devices to insure 

 cross-fertilisation by insect agency almost approach the 

 incredible. Flower and insect have been adapted to 

 each other so cleverly that the one seems a necessary 

 complement of the other; indeed, when one examines 

 the structure of some Orchid flowers, it seems impos- 

 sible to avoid the conclusion that their extraordinary 

 mechanism has been devised with the sole object of 

 utilising the insect as an instrument of transport — a 

 sort of carrier. Darwin and other scientific writers 

 have described these floral wonders in their own solid 

 way, but the subject is treated with greater literary 

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