Vlll 



A whole generation was, however, to pass away before 

 the culture of orchids was placed on an intelligent 

 footing. Dr. Lindley during the middle part of the 

 present century dominated the horticultural world. In 

 1830 he read a paper before the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, in which, generalising from insufficient data, he 

 concluded " that high temperature, deep shade, and 

 excessive humidity are the conditions essential to the 

 well-being of the plants " (Veitch, I. c, p. 119). Thirteen 

 years later he was substantially followed by Mr. Bateman : 

 " except the important direction to give the plants a 

 season of rest" (J. r., p. 120). 



The cultural treatment approved by Lindley " became, 

 as it were, the only orthodox one, and was generally 

 persisted in, in all its essential points, for tip wards of 

 thirty years." 



Two men, however, broke away from the ctirrent 

 tradition and with conspicuous success. " One of the 

 first of these was Joseph Cooper, gardener to Earl 

 Fitzwilliam, at Wentworth" (18;]5). "A still bolder 

 innovation was adopted shortly afterwards by Paxton, at 

 Chatsworth." In both cases the essential innovations 

 were lower temperature and increased ventilation. The 

 old tradition still, however, held its ground : — " plants 

 perished under the barbarous treatment they received in 

 the hot -houses of this country almost as fast as they were 

 imported. To such an extent were the losses felt, 

 that Lindley, in a remarkable article published in the 

 Gardeners^ Chronicle towards the end of 1859, pro- 

 nounced their treatment 'a deplorable faihtre,' and 

 Mr. Bateman also some years later characterised it as 

 ' incredible folly ' " (Veitch, I. c, p. 123). 



