NINETEENTH CENTURY 281 



being named in his honour. His gardener, Joseph Cooper, 

 was one of the first successful growers. In 1833 the orchid 

 collection at Chatsworth was begun. The Duke of Devonshire 

 procured plants from the East, and Paxton, who was his 

 gardener at the time, was enabled to cultivate many success- 

 fully, and publish the interesting records in the Magazine of 

 Botany, which he edited. The orchid-growers since then that 

 have been successful are too numerous to mention. Such 

 collections as that of Sir Trevor Lawrence, Major Holford, Mr. 

 Joseph Chamberlain, or Baron Schroeder, are among the 

 wonders of the modern garden. 



The history of the introduction of many of these orchids 

 reads like an exciting adventure or fairy-tale. The story of 

 the lost orchid Cattleya lahiata vera is known to all orchid 

 lovers. The plant was originally sent home from Brazil to 

 Dr. Lindley by Mr. W. Swainson, as a packing round some 

 lichens, in 1818,^ and Lindley described and named it in 

 memory of Mr. Cattley, a great horticulturalist. For years 

 after that date other species were sent home, which passed for 

 the true labiata, until it was discovered that the vera no 

 longer existed in cultivation, and that its native home was for- 

 gotten. For fift}^ years it was the aim of all collectors to find this 

 treasure again. By chance at last, in 1889, some plants were for- 

 warded home to M. Moreau, of Paris, from whom Messrs. Sanders 

 learnt its habitat, and sent off in search of it, and soon all 

 orchid growers were able to add the long-lost treasure to their 

 collections. Many fruitless voyages have been made to pro- 

 cure these floral wonders, and frequently the collector has 

 at last met with them when least expected. One plant of 

 Cypripedium Curtisi was sent home by Mr. Curtis from Penang 

 in 1882, and no more were forthcoming, until collectors 

 despaired of ever finding it. At last an orchid-hunter called 

 Ericsson, climbing a mountain in Sumatra, took shelter in a 

 little hut. On the walls he saw among the names of the 

 travellers who had rested there a drawing of the very flower 

 he was in search of, and underneath was written, " C. C.'s con- 

 tribution to the adornment of the house." He at once set to 

 work to look for it in the neighbourhood, and at length he found 



^ About Orchids. By Frederick Boyle, 1893. 



