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a high summer temperature with a dry atmosphere, and often a low 

 winter temperature, are quite unsuited. Central Asia, between the 

 great mountain ranges of the Altai and Himalaya, is a vast region, 

 where hot, dry summers and icy winters prevent orchids existing at 

 all. The same is true of the great desert regions of the earth. 

 North America, California, Texas, New Mexico, and the Mississipi 

 basin are too hot and dry in summer, and in South America the 

 pampas of the Argentine and a large part of Chili are eminently 

 unsuitable. A large part of Australia is very arid, but Queensland 

 with its moist climate produces some few orchids. A large part of 

 the African continent besides the deserts is too dry ; the elevated 

 plateaus of a large part of South Africa have all a dry climate, but 

 the North African and the Central African forests with their moist 

 climate produce plenty of orchids, though few are of horticultural 

 value. 



Of the more isolated regions of the earth producing orchids, Japan 

 and Cape Colony stand, perhaps, first, while Natal and New South 

 Wales are also very interesting. All these countries have a moist, 

 temperate climate without great extremes of heat and cold. The 

 remarkable terrestrial orchid, Disa grcuidiflora, which grows on Table 

 Mountain with D. racemosa and D. tripetaloides, is found nowhere 

 else, and on account of its remarkable beauty has been ruthlessly 

 collected in years gone by, but fortunately now it and many other 

 orchids in our British possessions are protected, and no one is allowed 

 to collect them. 



In the moist countries of the tropics of the old world the genus 

 Dendrobium is nearly always represented. It includes a very large 

 number of species, and the genus is very polymorphic. Most of the 

 species have long, narrow bulbs, and the flowers are produced in 

 clusters from the nodes of the pseudo-bulbs. Sometimes the flowers 

 are pendulous, sometimes upright, and occasionally in long, drooping 

 spikes all clustered together. The genus Dendrobium affords a large 

 number of species with striking flowers, and D. uobile, a species 

 found from India to China, is probably the best known and most 

 cultivated species in existence. In the hilly districts of Northern 

 India and in Burma there are still a large number of species to be 

 found, though in considerably diminished quantity. 



In the Philippine Islands are to be found most of the species of 

 Phalccnopsis, but owing to very special cultivation and the great 

 difficulty of getting plants sent over alive to this country, many people 

 have given up growing these extraordinarily beautiful plants. The 

 orchids of cultivation sent home from the islands of the Malay 

 Archipelago include Aerides, Saccolabhim, and Vanda, besides some 

 species of Dendrobium. All these require great heat and moisture, 

 especially in the growing season ; but even when they are resting a 

 high temperature is necessary, especially for the first three genera. 



Most orchids that come from a very hot and moist climate do not 

 thrive for more than a few years in this country under cultivation, 



