The Culture of Greenhouse Orchids 



Sander discovered, as I have told. This is all the 

 secret. 



" If it be asked why such astonishing variations 

 occur in this botanic family, while so many others 

 reproduce themselves as methodically as peas, no 

 one can answer. But orchidists are wont to assert 

 that two flowers, even on the same stalk, are never 

 identical, unless white or self-coloured. If this be 

 not true, it is scarcely more inexact than the common 

 statement that no two men or women are precisely 

 alike in feature. We know that such cases have 

 been found ; and so, on careful search, identical 

 flowers of an orchid may be discovered. But under 

 such conditions it is not really surprising that from 

 time to time jSTature breaks right away and produces 

 something abnormal. 



" Here are a few instances. Cyp. Stonei platyke- 

 nium was mentioned in the preceding letter, but I 

 did not name its peculiarities. The type Stonei is 

 very pretty ; it has none of the dull browns and 

 greens so prevalent among Cypripediums. The 

 colouring is all lively — white, striped with red and 

 shaded with lemon frreen. While following the 

 general design, almost every plant among millions 

 differs more or less, and a single one carried 

 variation so far as to produce a bloom twice as 

 large as its fellows, more richly coloured, with 



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