OcToBER, 1922.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 293 
REMINISCENCES OF MY ORCHIDIC LIFE. 
By DE BARRI CRAWSHAY, O.B.E. 
OR my Orchidic career I have to thank the great Botanic Gardens at 
7 Kew and a poisoned hand, as the following incident will show. In 
1870 I did not know what an exotic Orchid was, although I had ‘‘ discovered” 
and gathered many of the English species that are known popularly as the 
*“ Bee” and the “‘ Fly,” etc. It so chanced that, having a badly poisoned 
hand, one of my uncles, who was a doctor, carried me off to Richmond in 
order to stay with him and be cured. I used to go with him ina brougham 
on his round of visits, and knowing my love of gardening, he took me one 
day to spend an hour at Kew. We hada run through the houses, and on 
entering one that was very hot and saturated with moisture, I saw a row of 
sticks, apparently all dead and drooping, attached ‘to wooden blocks that 
were suspended from the roof. My astonished eyes caused me to exclaim : 
‘** What are those things, uncle?’ and on being informed that they were 
Orchids from South America, I replied: ‘‘ When I am a man, uncle, I shall 
grow Orchids.” To say those few words took perhaps ten seconds, but that 
short time has controlled forty years of my life. Those uncanny-looking 
plants and the way they were growing instantly proclaimed them to my 
boyish mind as different to anything else I had seen, and naturally I wanted 
them; such is human nature. After that day Kew was visited again, and 
by the time my hand was cured my boyish resolve had sunk in much 
deeper. I ieft my uncle’s house knowing the names of several genera. 
School days led me near several large gardens, and I always looked for 
the Orchids, and found them on blocks of wood and in all sorts of uncanny 
growth that to-day would grieve me sadly. During one of my “‘ Holy Days” 
I had to carry out a commission for my father with a big nursery firm in 
London that has since become extinct. It came about in a curious way. 
The nurseryman had delivered a large order of plants to stock a winter 
garden built by my father. One very fine orange tree did not look well = 
caused the following remark: “ That tree will be dead in three months. 
To which the dealer replied: ‘ Not it; if it is I will give you £50 worth of 
plants.” That orange tree did die, and I was sent to choose the plants: 
Here was my first chance to grow Orchids. But when I heard the staggering 
prices for plants in small pots my heart sank deeper than did formerly my 
resolution to grow them. Consequently I only chose Cypripedium barbatum 
and C. insigne. These two plants were grown for a couple of years and 
finally died, but it was my first step towards better things. 
The next attempt was also at a big London nursery. A batch of Odonto- 
glossum cirrhosum were just pushing their spikes, and without asking the 
Price, two were ordered to be sent when the flowers were ready to open. 
