ORCHIDS. 39 
LALIA AUTUMNALIS, 
TuIs variety — represented on Plate Nori flowering prob- 
ably in its native tropical home (Central America) in autumn, blos- 
soms here in early winter. It is of luxuriant growth; produces 
from five to fifteen blossoms on a drooping spike. Those who 
study it will not doubt that the variety is every way worthy of 
cultivation. 
In Eastern lands they talk in flowers, 
And they tell in a garland their loves and cares} 
Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers, 
On its leaves a mystic language bears. 
“The fathers of the Church were in the habit of comparing 
the soul to a garden. Gardens figure conspicuously in the my- 
thology of all nations living in a hot or temperate climate. The 
Mohammedan paradise is represented under that symbol. The 
Chinese speak of the gardens of the immortals, which are said to 
be situated among the mountains of Thibet, and blessed with per- 
petual summer; nothing within their bounds can die or grow old, 
and several ancient sages are believed to have retired to dwell 
among their bowers. There is a wild tradition among the Arabs 
concerning gardens of the desert, which are believed to have been 
formed by an ancient king, at enormous expense and labor. They 
say he conquered all the nations of the East, and boasted he would 
conquer the sands also, but, having completed his design, the 
gardens suddenly became invisible in the pomp of their richest 
bloom, and neither the monarch nor any of his successors ever again 
