O ORCHID-GrOWEK S MANUAL. 



these facts for the information of our readers, as well as of importers, in 

 order to show how important it is to try and get home alive all the 

 plants collected, so that the public may have a chance of saving these 

 treasures. This would be better for collectors and importers, as well as 

 buyers ; for the present destructive system, or want of system, leads to a 

 loss of capital, and is, besides, an annoyance both to sellers and purchasers. 

 The losses of purchased plants in this wholesale way — plants that will 

 not grow under the best treatment — often stop amateurs from going on 

 with their cultivation. We do not lay all the blame of non-success on the 

 collectors, for there are many other causes which lead to loss even when 

 they are brought home at the right season; for instance (1) they may 

 be injured by damp in the cases ; then (2) sea water will affect them 

 injuriously if it gets on them ; and (3) sometimes our amateurs and 

 growers do not treat them right when they receive them. Full directions 

 on this important matter will be found in our chapter on the Treatment 

 of Newly Imported Plants. 



In bringing these introductory remarks to a close, we desire to 

 record our deep sense of the obligations wo owe to the many travellers 

 and collectors who have added so largely to our knowledge of Orchids, 

 and who have laboured so arduously and incessantly to enable us to 

 enjoy the beauties of the choicest productions of the vegetable world 

 without meeting the dangers and difficulties with which they have had 

 to contend. We allude especially to such men as Warscewicz, the 

 brothers Lobb, Hartweg, J. G. Veitch, Colonel Benson, O'Reilly, Rev. C. 

 Parish, Pearce, Bowmann, Weir, Hutton, Kramer, Porte, Wallis, Linden, 

 Skinner,, Hugh Low, Schlim, Blunt, Roezl, Klaboch, Endres, Chesterton, 

 and many others who might be named did space permit. Many of them, 

 alas! have fallen victims to the fatigues of the undertaking and the 

 pestilential climates to which they have been exposed, thus suffering 

 martyrdom for the cause of horticulture. These were men who had in 

 view the advancement of science, and the enriching of our collections 

 with new forms of plant life ; and their example might be followed 

 with advantage by many of the latter day collectors, who, instead of 

 sending home a few plants in good order, allowing the skill of the 

 cultivator to grow and increase them at home, seem determined to exter- 

 minate certain kinds of Orchids from their natural localities, without 

 anyone deriving benefit thereby. When such vast quantities are gathered 



