18 orchid-grower's manual. 



have a most depressing influence upon Orchid growing. 

 These deplorable results might be avoided if collectors would 

 be satisfied with a less number of plants, and would attend to 

 the few simple rules given in this chapter, adapting them, to 

 suit the circumstances in which they find themselves placed. 



RISKS OF COLLECTING ORCHIDS. 



HERE is no doubt that there are many conditions, 

 sometimes peculiar ones, under which Orchids can 

 be successfully grown ; and much has yet to be 

 learned regarding their requii'ements, the methods of cultiva- 

 tion to which they may be subjected, and the amount of 

 endurance they possess. The treatment they receive after 

 their arrival from their native habitats, is also to them a matter 

 of importance. Before they come into our hands, they are 

 found growing in a perfectly natural way, without human aid, 

 having, of course, their native climate to enjoy, I'eceiving 

 heavy moisture by night, which they absorb and store up 

 for their immediate sustenance, and being also favoured 

 with a rain}' season as well as a dry one. These difierent 

 conditions of course exactly meet their wants in their 

 growing and resting seasons respectively. It must be a 

 delightful sight to witness them growing and flowering in this 

 natural way, throwing oft' their sweet perfume to the breeze, 

 while the roots cling to the branches and stems of the trees 

 where they abound, and in which situations they multiply by 

 means of the seeds scattered from the withered seed-pods. 

 This seed in process of time germinates and forms young 

 plants which finally get established on the branches, and there 

 the fallen leaves, settling among their roots, by feeding impart 



