502 FLOWERS OF GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE 
masses (pollinia) of pollen are formed. With very few exceptions the 
essential organs are so placed as to prevent fertilisation unless assisted 
by some agency such as bees, birds, ete. The fruit is three-valved ; the 
seeds exceedingly numerous, spindle-shaped, but minute. To facilitate . 
reference to so large a number of genera, they are grouped into five tribes 
according to their affinities: I. Epidendreee, H. Vandez, III. Neottiex, 
IV. Ophrydex, V. Cypripediez ; and these are each divided into sub-tribes. 
It will be understood that so vast an Order, with its hundreds of 
genera and thousands of species, of which it is reckoned one-half have 
been brought under the care of the gardener, cannot be dealt with in a 
work like the present in any but the most superficial manner. We can 
only hope to take representative species from a few of the principal 
genera, and with the aid of the plates give a slight notion of their beauty 
of form and colour, and the wide variation of structure based upon the 
general characters enumerated above. 
Orchid- culture must be reckoned among the most 
modern developments of the horticultural art. The first 
exotic species grown in Britain was probably Bletia verecunda, intro- 
duced to Kew from the Bahamas by Mr. Peter Collinson in 1731, 
succeeded at a distance of forty-seven years by Dr. Fothergill’s importa- 
tion of Phaius grandifolius from China. Between these dates, however, 
Vanilla planifolia was introduced (some years prior to 1739), lost, and 
reintroduced early in the nineteenth century. When Aiton published 
the first edition of the Hortus Kewensis in 1789 he could only enumerate 
fifteen foreign species of Orchids as in cultivation at Kew; the Hand-list 
of Orchids cultivated at Kew, issued in 1896, enumerates 1800 species, 
belonging to 190 genera. A century ago the prevailing notion 
concerning the epiphytal species was that they were parasites requiring 
each its special species of tree for successful growth, and that all, or 
most, foreign orchids were natives of tropical jungles requiring a hot, 
humid atmosphere, with absence of ventilation. Mr. H. J. Veitch, F.LS., 
a few years ago contributed to the proceedings of the Royal Horticul- 
tural Society a most interesting paper on “Orchid Culture, Past and 
Present” (Jowrnal R. H. S., vol. xi. p. 115), in which he describes the 
struggle with error the Orchid-grower has had to fight until recently. 
Collectors sent home plants without taking care to describe the conditions 
under which they found them growing naturally; eminent traders and 
others abroad gave information based on insufficient data or a lack of 
data, and so fixed the wrong kind of treatment for half a century, 
during which period great numbers of plants were imported, and as 
regularly killed with the best intentions. Mr. Veitch says: “The usual 
History. 
