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extreme variations of their growing season, with an indication 
of what is their predominately favorable length of season. 
Mr. Nash exhibited a plant of Paphiopedilum Fairieanum, 
which was described by Lindley in 1857 from material said to 
have come from Assam. It was quite common in cultivation 
in Europe for some years after its introduction, but by about 1881 
it was considered a very rare plant, the plants, probably owing 
to ignorance as to its habitat, slowly dying, until but a few indi- 
viduals were left. The large nursery firm of Sander & Sons sent 
out a collector about 1894 to seek for it in the Khasia and 
Jaintia hills, but without success. 
he horticultural world was startled in the early part of 1905 
by the announcement in an Indian horticultural paper that the 
long lost orchid had been rediscovered, but by whom and where 
this discovery had been made was kept a secret. Th nounce- 
ment was at first doubted, but it was finally established that the 
plant had really been rediscovered by G. L. Searight, an engineer, 
on duty in the valley of the Torsa or Amuchu River in the Chumbi 
district of western Bhotan. For the first thirty or forty miles 
of its course this river flows through rugged mountains, and it 
was here, in the niches of gneissic cliffs, that this dainty little 
plant had its home. Here, exposed fully to the sun and air, at 
altitudes estimated at from 3,000 to 7,000 feet, this plant thrived. 
Ignorance as to its needs, so unusual among most of the members 
of this genus, may well excuse the failures in its first advent into 
cultivation. Now that its peculiar habitat is known better suc- 
cess is being attained with it. This species represents the 
northern extension of the genus, reaching about latitude 27, 
even further north than Paphiopedilum insigne. 
The plant has always had the reputation of possessing a weak 
constitution, due perhaps to ignorance as to its habit which 
resulted in errors in cultivation. Its individuality is marked, 
of the parents, its characteristics have been strongly impressed. 
It has again become a plant common to many collections, and 
will probably form the basis now for much more hybrid work 
in this interesting genus. 
