Orchid Prices 



my article on ' Orchid Prices,' pnljlished on tlie 

 29tla November. Keading of multitudinous guineas 

 paid for this or that variety, they may overlook the 

 humble shillings casually mentioned as the value 

 of the same species. It would be a result as strange 

 as depl(.)rable, seeing how I have always striven to 

 demonstrate that cool-orchid o-rowins; for the modest 

 hnmjcois is scarcely more expensive than any other 

 form of culture which demands a greenhouse. But 

 I fear that it may be so. I ask your leave to explain. 

 " The letter was suggested by an allusion to Baron 

 Schroder's Gijf. insignc Sandcrcv-, which is probably 

 the most valuable of orchids — as j^et known, that 

 is * — and in dealing with it I naturally spoke of 

 others which belong to the same class. But they 

 fetch extraordinary prices because they are excep- 

 tions — ' sports,' with which Nature indulges herself 

 from time to time. The ' type ' (of equal size and 

 average beauty) is worth from 2.s\ Gd. to 5s., because 

 dealers will supply thousands at that rate to order ; 

 but all the dealers in the universe could not supply 

 one of this perfected variety — unless, of course, it 

 were an offshoot from the single plant which Mr. 



* I leave this statement unaltered, because it was true at the 

 date. But Cypripediums can be multiplied fast, and every mortal 

 who possessed a bit of G. Sanderie has been dividing it at the 

 earlie.st moment ever since. Thus, in 1901, a small plant, but 

 healthy, can be bought for ten guineas. 



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