ORCHIDS 131 



dom. They can find sustenance in every kind of 

 soil, or in no soil at all, and we see, therefore, that 

 they possess an adaptability truly marvellous. 



Now, we know that adaptability comes through 

 variation, and variation is brought about by cross- 

 fertilisation. So we see that the wide and varied 

 distribution of the orchids is a direct result of their 

 peculiar and determined efforts to have cross- 

 fertilisation, and to be satisfied with nothing else. 



It is their creed, their banner under which they 

 have conquered their "place in the sun" — "In hoc 

 signo vinces," might be their motto. And through- 

 out our vast country, from Greenland to Mexico, 

 from flat Cape Cod to lofty Mount Shasta, we find 

 their tiny banners fluttering, to announce their vic- 

 tory in the struggle for existence. 



But not very many of them are ours. Of the 

 seven thousand species known to the botanists, only 

 sixty-eight grow in the United States east of the 

 Rocky JMountains, and many of these are so rare, 

 so quaint in form and colour, so like exquisite works 

 of art, that we think of them as Nature's master- 

 pieces of handicraft, her most recondite form of 

 flower designs, her bibelots. And as bibelots they 

 are sought after and collected and prized with fren- 

 zied enthusiasm. Hunters for orchids travel thou- 

 sands of miles, undergo every hardship, often risk- 



