RISE OF ORCHID CULTURE 3 
It is in indicating the lines on which the practice may 
be best pursued that, it is hoped, this book may serve a 
useful purpose. : 
_— 
CHAPTER I 
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORCHID 
CULTURE , 
THE first tropical Orchid to flower in the British Isles 
appears to have been Bletia verecunda (Helleborine ameri- 
cana), figured in Historia Plantorum Rariorum, 1728- 
1735. It bloomed in 1732 on a plant received by Peter 
Collinson from the Bahamas in the previous year. In 
succession to this appeared Cypripedium spectabile and one 
or two other North American Cypripediums; Vanilla 
aromatica, and a few other species, chiefly terrestrial 
Orchids. In 1789 Aiton’s Hortus Kewensis enumerated 
fifteen species of exotic Orchids as being in cultivation at 
Kew, the tropical species being Bletia verecunda, Epidendrum 
fragrans, Epidendrum cochleatum, and Phaius grandifolius. 
At the end of the eighteenth century about fifty exotic 
species were recorded. At that time most of the Orchids 
were imported only to perish as a consequence of the 
unsuitable conditions in which they were grown. The 
plants were potted in the most unlikely materials, such as 
decayed wood, sawdust, loam, tanner’s bark, or any other 
material which the cultivator thought would be useful in 
preventing the excessive mortality among his plants; but 
in all cases the chances of success were discounted by 
