RISE OF ORCHID CULTURE 3 



It is in indicating the lines on which the practice may 

 be best pursued that, it is hoped, this book may serve a 

 useful purpose. 



CHAPTER I 



THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORCHID 

 CULTURE 



THE first tropical Orchid to flower in the British Isles 

 appears to have been Bletia verecunda (Helleborine ameri- 

 cana), figured in Historia Plantorum Rariorum, 1728- 

 1735. It bloomed in 1732 on a plant received by Peter 

 Collinson from the Bahamas in the previous year. In 

 succession to this appeared Cypripedium spectabile and one 

 or two other North American Cypripediums ; Vanilla 

 aromatica, and a few other species, chiefly terrestrial 

 Orchids. In 1789 Aiton's Hortus Kewensis enumerated 

 fifteen species of exotic Orchids as being in cultivation at 

 Kew, the tropical species being Bletia verecunda, Epidendrum 

 fragrans, Epidendrum cochleatum, and Phaius grandifolius. 

 At the end of the eighteenth century about fifty exotic 

 species were recorded. At that time most of the Orchids 

 were imported only to perish as a consequence of the 

 unsuitable conditions in which they were grown. The 

 plants were potted in the most unlikely materials, such as 

 decayed wood, sawdust, loam, tanner's bark, or any other 

 material which the cultivator thought would be useful in 

 preventing the excessive mortality among his plants ; but 

 in all cases the chances of success were discounted by 



