328 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [NovEMBER, 1922. 
Our financially inclined friends often told all of us who kept these high 
priced plants: ‘‘ What a fool you are,” but they quite forgot that had we 
sold them all at once some of us would never have had the fine results we 
have now in our hybrids resulting from them. Almost all raisers have had 
one particular plant that has given them a fine race of hybrids. I have 
been fortunate in having three that have given me very fine breeds whereon 
to work. 
From 1880 till 1890 the firm of Sander imported the vast majority of the 
crispums, Shuttleworth & Carder coming next, and for whom John Carder 
collected. Other importers were The New Plant and Bulb Co. and F. 
Horsman & Co., both father and son carrying on the latter business. 
In course of time Mr. J. Charlesworth acquired the business of Mr. 
Shuttleworth, and went to South America, from where he sent home 
immense quantities of Orchids, among them noteworthy importations of 
Odontoglossum Hallii and Oncidium macranthum. Mr. Carder retired 
from his old firm and sent his consignments to Mr. A. van den Bogaerde, of 
Great Barr, Birmingham, who removed to Perry Barr, a place that 
subsequently became a notorious haunt of the crispum buyer. Later on 
Mr. H. A. Tracy, of Twickenham, became an agent for crispum exporters. 
In May, 1903, Senor Camacho arrived in London with some 30,000 
plants, and for two years simply flooded the market with them by repeated 
auction sales. Messrs. Stanley Ashton & Co. imported very large 
quantities, and also Mr. H. Whateley, of Kenilworth. During the later 
nineties Mr. T. Rochford, of Turnford Hall, commissioned Mr. Carder to 
send him an immense number of crispums wherewith to create the cut flower 
market in them, and out of them he bloomed some very fine things, 
including O. crispum Pittianum. Besides the above firms there were others 
who imported crispums into England, as well as numerous firms on the 
continent. Many importations were also received direct, a term implying 
much or little as the case might be. The immense numbers imported were 
the direct result of the high prices period for the blotched ones, and the 
business only ceased when the hybridist succeeded in producing them 
at home. Wecan all remember the days when we used to say: ‘There 
will be no crispums left in Colombia,” but in the last decade they have had 
time to increase in the districts where the forests have not been cut down 
before cultivation and cattle production. 
In 1907 it can almost be said that the importation of O. crispum ceased, 
with the exception of a few consignments at irregular periods. On looking 
at my late purchases the entries are one transaction each year in 1907, 1908, 
1912, 1914, whereas in former years it was continuous and in thousands. 
The last four years only added eighty plants to my former total. Mr- 
Sander imported the last Pachos, which I believe came to England in 1914+ 
