23 



and a half years, and in this respect they are to be bracketed with 

 Masdevallia and Calanthe as the quickest of orchids to be raised 

 from seed ; but undoubtedly Cypripedium is quickest of all, speaking 

 generally. In all seed-pods there are some forward and some 

 backward seedlings. From a pod of a Cypripedium one may have 

 flowering plants within two and a half years, and at the same time 

 have minute plants that would, perhaps, take seven or eight years to 

 flower. It frequently happens, however, that the more robust 

 seedlings which flower so rapidly are inferior varieties, while the 

 more delicate and slow-growing seedlings produce extra fine 

 flowers. This is true of all orchids, and, indeed, of plants generally. 

 While on the subject of seeds it might be well here to say that 

 owing to their extremely small size it is advisable, when a pod 

 is approaching maturity, to place a prepared surface of fine-chopped 

 peat mixed with sphagnum-moss in a shallow pan beneath the pod, 

 so that when it splits open the seeds can fall on the surface where 

 they are to germinate, without any handling. There is a widely 

 spread belief that it is the first few seeds that drop that alone will 

 germinate, but this is not true always, as sometimes out of a single 

 pod one may raise almost as many plants as one wants to, all the 

 seeds, or at least a very large number, germinating and producing 

 plants. All orchids take a long time to ripen their seed-pods, and 

 when one recollects that these plants only thrive in a moist 

 atmosphere the cause is at once apparent. Under cultivation at the 

 present time pods ripen in five or six months at the quickest, some, 

 however, such as Cattleya, taking a whole year from the time the seed 

 is set. Cattleya, however, germinates very rapidly, as quickly as a 

 fortnight, while some orchids, perhaps the majority, take some 

 months to germinate. 



The Distribution of Orchids. 



As has already been remarked, terrestrial orchids belong essentially 

 to the temperate regions, but are, nevertheless, spread over the whole 

 world in suitable situations. Epiphytal orchids hardly occur any- 

 where outside the tropics ; none occur in Europe. Europe has only 

 about sixty species of terrestrial orchids, and only one of these, 

 Cypripedium calceolus, which is also a scarce inhabitant of Britain, 

 has flowers of any size. Severe climate alone cannot account for the 

 poverty, for in North America and in Siberia there are species of 

 Cypripedium that are three times the size, and their colouring much 

 brighter. In North America Cypripedium spectabile, C. montanum, 

 C. arietinum, C pubesce/is, C. humile, and C. parviflorum are all 

 handsome species ; and in Siberia C guttatum and C. macranthum 

 are both far finer than our C. calceolus. Bletia hyacinthina, from 

 quite cold districts of China and Japan, when well flowered is also 

 an attractive orchid. A very large part of the earth's surface is 

 unsuitable for orchids of any kind. All those districts which have 



