The Garden of British Wild Flowers. 227 



order of Orchids — everywhere beautiful and sin- 

 gular, whether gorgeously developed, as in the hot 

 or moist East, or small and tiny on the Kent and 

 Surrey hills, where the Bee Orchis produces its 

 peculiar flowers so abundantly. Now, many of these 

 small British Orchids are, in my opinion, as pretty 

 as many of those cultivated in the stove or green- 

 house. It is most interesting to see and to collect 

 them when wild, and still more so to cultivate 

 them. If you can succeed in growing the British 

 Orchids, you are not likely to fail with any other 

 hardy plants. They are the most difficult of all to 

 cultivate, but amongst the most interesting things 

 which can be grown. In many or most parts of the 

 country the Bee Orchis and some other rare ones do 

 not grow ; how interesting it would be in such dis- 

 tricts to have the Bee Orchis to show in one's garden ! 

 I have never seen our Orchids grown in more than 

 half a dozen gardens, but, nevertheless, have no 

 doubt that they can be very well grown therein, be- 

 cause I have cultivated the Bee Orchis and the Fly 

 Orchis and the Hand Orchis, and a number of other 

 British Orchids, for several years, and flowered them 

 annually too. People generally make a mistake 

 by putting them in pots. If the plants should 

 make a good attempt to grow there, the long fleshy 

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