THE PROGRESS OF ORCHID CULTURE IN AMERICA. 131 



1837. In September, 1849, James Dandas and Robert Buist 

 were awarded the first and second prizes for orchids exhibited 

 before the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society at Philadelphia ; but 

 the species are not named. We find the first trace of any orchid 

 collection, in America, in Boston about 1837 — John Wright Boott, 

 whose garden occupied the ground where the Revere House now 

 stands, owning a small lot of orchids sent from England. This 

 collection was scattered, but in 1846 Caleb Cope of Philadelphia, 

 who still lives, had a greenhouse devoted to orchids. He was 

 also the first to flower the Victoria regia in this country. 



In the meantime small collections of a few species had grown 

 up around Boston, and in 1854 Edward S. Rand owned what was 

 considered, at. the time, a fine collection, and many of the plants 

 were specimens of considerable size. Previous to 1850 Erastus 

 Corning, of Albany, N. Y., owned some orchids, such as Phaius, 

 Cypripediums, Cattleyas, Epidendrums, and a few other genera ; 

 and about 1850 he brought from England thirty species of orchids, 

 including Vaudas, Aerides, etc., and thus laid the foundation 

 of his wonderful collection, which today is, without doubt, the 

 finest in America, and one of the best in the world. Isaac Buchan- 

 an of Astoria, L. I., long known as one of the earliest florists 

 in this country, who still lives, and whose love for orchids 

 continues as keen as ever, brought Cattleya Mossiae, from England 

 in 1840, and gradually increased his collection until, about 1860 , 

 he had a large number of plants. Mr. Buchanan never lost an 

 opportunity to add to these, and (although buying and selling con- 

 tinually) he had as many as 2,000 orchids in his collection at one 

 time, and probably many more than that number. His collection 

 was largely dispersed some time ago, though he still retains some 

 of his plants. Thomas Hogg maintained a fine collection near 

 New York about 1850, but this was dispersed some years later. 

 The collection of Cornelius Van Voorst, of Jersey City, was a 

 noted one in its day, and doubtless the best in this country at that 

 period. It existed from about 1857 until 1870, when it was 

 broken up. M. Lienau, of the same city, owned, after the 

 dispersion of Van Voorst's collection, the best lot of orchids in 

 this country, but in 1873 this was also dispersed, part of the 

 plants being taken to Germany by Lienau, and the I'est of them 

 being sold at auction. There were a number of other orchid- 

 growers in this country previous to 1860 — among them Gen. John 



