266 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



moss attached, and suspended from the roof of the Cattleya house. It 

 should receive a liberal supply of water during the growing season, but 

 afterwards a very moderate supply will suffice, particularly during the 

 winter. It is a striking plant when well grown. 



ORCHIDS OF COMMERCIAL VALUE. 



Notes of a paper read by Mr. ROBERT KARLSTROM before the Hartford (Connecticut) 



In the past, when the demand for choice flowers and variety was not so 

 great as it is to-day, most of our Orchids belonged to a limited number of 

 private individuals ; consequently, few flowers found their way to the flower 

 stores or came before the general public. The few Orchid flowers then to 

 be seen were looked upon more as curiosities than as an article of trade. 

 The price, also, was beyond reach, and although they were much admired 

 for their beauty, it seemed that Orchids never would become popular, as 

 the supply was limited. The grower would not invest capital or spend 

 much of his time on a plant for which he thought there was no marked 

 Difficulty was also experienced in finding a person to grow this, then little 

 known, plant. The grower must therefore personally take charge of, and 

 look after his plants, and he would rather do that than entrust his com- 

 paratively large investment in the hands of an inexperienced or incompetent 

 assistant. The retail merchant or storekeeper was equally careful in buying 

 flowers he had small chances of selling, or to take an order for goods he was 

 not sure, to be able to fill. Under those conditions, the risk was naturally 

 great on all sides. 



But times have changed in the last ten years. It is hard to say where 

 we are going to stop. Orchid plants number well up in the millions; 

 flowers are cut and sold in much greater number, at a profit to the grower 

 of tens of thousands of dollars, and still the demand is ever increasing. 



Plants can never be cheaper, or the supply, I believe, more abundant 

 than at the present time. Here are a few of the reasons : Orchids cannot 

 be propagated by cuttings to over production, as is the case with most 

 other plants. It is a very slow process indeed to propagate them by 

 division, and it takes several years for most of them to attain their flowering 

 period from seeds. We must, therefore, depend almost entirely upon 

 importations from their native growing places. But even there the 

 supply is getting smaller year by year, and it is, perhaps, but a question 

 of time when it will become altogether exhausted. The immediate cause is 

 the thoughtless, unconscious, and " don't care " Orchid collectors, the 

 cutting down of the forests, and the needs of the ever-increasing population 

 in these districts. 



