58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND 



was not bad, but when compared with the other Yandas 

 I had, it did not look well. Why do you not give him 

 one of those good looking 1 I would. I have offered 

 him one, but he would not have it ; they are Y. tri- 

 color, and he wants Y. suaris Veitchii, which were 

 and are all tri-color ! ! in varieties with different ad- 

 jectives, as Messrs. Yeitch have demonstrated in their 

 admirable ! ! Manual of Orchidaeous Plants. My 

 wife said so much about that mean plant to be changed 

 for one of the other good looking, that I did it, but I 

 felt I was doing wrong, although it was my conviction 

 then, as to-day, that all these Vandas were all tri-color, 

 strictly, botanically speaking. Four years later we 

 found that plant to be Y. tri-color Corningiana, and 

 not thought much more than the other varieties. We 

 had not had time to appreciate it, at least 7, who ought 

 to have known as much as anybody else, except Grey, 

 and as I have said, I have not begun to appreciate it 

 before 1880, as far as I can recollect. When I had a 

 splendid plant, perhaps two and one-half or three feet 

 high, with three shoots starting at the base of that 

 plant, the only one I had ; it was in bloom ; when one 

 of our neighbors, a newly sprung orchidophile, who 

 had caught the orchid fever to exacerbation, to the par- 

 oxism ! asked me if I would sell it to him. I said that 

 I would not sell it until I had separated the young ones ; 

 he asked me again how long it would be ; I told him I 



