206 How TO Grow Cut Floweks; 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

 ORCHIDS. 



So much might be written on this subject I hesitate 

 to commence, lest no stopping place be found before 

 the limited amount of space tnat can be accorded to 

 it in these pages shall be exhausted. Orchids fill so 

 large a place in the world of flowers to-day, and have 

 come to be so much of a necessity in some localities — 

 notably those occupied by people of wealth — that our 

 list of winter cut flowers would seem incomplete with- 

 out some mention of them. We will therefore consider 

 them very briefly and with reference to the wants of the 

 retail grower and amateur rather than to those of the 

 wholesaler. For extensive commercial growing, per- 

 haps more than any other family do these need to be 

 made a specialty. 



To be grown on a large scale, requires first, a large 

 capital. Second, it is necessary that a person should 

 have received a practical training in all that pertains 

 to their cultivation. The demand for this class of 

 flowers is of such recent date many growers who are ex- 

 pert in the cultivation of other kinds of plants, would 

 find themselves somewhat at sea were they to undertake 

 the culture of Orchids on a scale at par with the lines 

 they are already accustomed to. Again, from the very 

 nature of things, the price of these flowers must be high 

 for years to come, and as a consequence will be beyond 

 the reach of many who buy liberally of other kinds. 



