ORCHIDS. 31 
Until very recently, orchids were an expensive luxury. The 
Chocoensis was more costly than many other species; for this, 
with most others, our countrymen were obliged to import directly 
from English florists. The demand has now so increased, that 
American cultivators receive their plants in quantities direct from 
Brazil, Mexico, etc. 
At public auction sales in England, not long ago, a very 
choice specimen of C. 7viane sold for two hundred and fifty 
guineas, 7 ¢@, nearly eleven hundred dollars. An original 
importation of the Atrides brought two hundred and thirty-five 
guineas. Some two or three years since, a choice Cypripedium, 
represented on these pages, was sold in this country for one 
hundred guineas. Recently, at auction sales in London, the 
highest price given for orchids was twenty-six guineas for an 
Odontoglossum. A fine Lelia brought seventy dollars; a Phalen- 
opsis Stuartiana (a new variety, a drawing of which is found on 
these pages), brought thirty dollars. Now, very good plants of 
many different species can be had of agents in this country, at 
from three to five dollars apiece. And purchasers will be wise to 
pay a dollar or two more for good specimens, than purchase 
smaller plants, for whose blossoming they must wait long, — at 
less prices than those last named, because they are called cheap. 
Travellers in different parts of the Orient had long known 
that there were many orchidacez of remarkably brilliant colors, 
singularly curious form, and of fine fragrance; but for many years 
they were only known to the horticultural world by preserved 
specimens, pressed out of shape, and withered. At length a few 
living plants were brought to England, but their proper treatment 
was not understood; they were kept alive for a season, but ere 
