54 OECHID-GEOWER S MANUAL. 



that would be desirable, but the information -would enable 

 us to give the treatment most congenial to the requirements 

 of each, so far as the means at our command would afford. 

 The want of some such information has been a source of 

 extreme vexation to many lovers of these plants in years 

 gone by ; indeed, had we received any account as to the 

 physical and climatal surroundings of the many fine things 

 found and collected by M. Warscewioz, and other travellers of 

 that period, the collections of the present day would be able 

 to boast of many fine species which have never since reached 

 this country in a living state. The collections alluded to 

 were, however, sent to this country in a careless manner, 

 without the slightest indication of the conditions under which 

 they had been growing ; and, Orchidology being then in its 

 infancy, they were nearly all killed by being subjected to 

 intense heat, this being in those days considered the correct 

 course to pursue with all Orchidaceous plants. Thus hundreds 

 of beautiful species, which had been collected at great trouble 

 and risk, and were purchased by eager amateurs at home, 

 oftentimes at great cost, rapidly died out, simply from the 

 prevaihng ignorance of the localities in which they had been 

 growing. 



To prevent a repetition of such disasters and disappoint- 

 ments, the experience of those who have had the good fortune 

 to see Orchids growing in a state of nature is of the greatest 

 importance, giving as it does a basis of operations to any 

 experiments which may be made. Strange as it may appear 

 to some, and ridiculous as it has been pronounced by others, 

 I do not consider it is advisable to imitate strictly the natural 

 conditions in which plants are sometimes found, because we 

 have so many proofs that, as individual specimens, the culti- 

 vated plants are frequently to be seen in greater perfection 

 than those naturally grown ; and it is only reasonable to infer 



