46 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
colour from pure white to rosy mauve—sometimes blended or tinged; their 
size, form, and substance; the peculiar spotting on the segments, ranging 
from solitary spots to groups of spots, and differently coloured spots. 
The plants flower almost throughout the year, and the graceful arching 
racemes last in bloom about two months. In Europe the flowers are much 
improved by cultivation as compared with the flowers in the forest, 
Another advantage which contributes to the value of this plant under 
cultivation is that it grows only in a cool temperature. Its altitudinal 
range in its native habitat is from 6,500 to 9,000 feet, and the range of the 
temperature is from 40° to 70° Fahr. 
As already indicated, this is in all probability the most popular of all 
Orchids in cultivation. During the past twenty years the number of plants 
exported to Europe has averaged not less than 100,000 a year, thus two 
millions. Of course many thousands perish under cultivation in Europe, 
and some 25 per cent. are lost in transit. The demand for these plants 
in Europe is increasing. This year several great Orchid growers have 
requisitioned 250,000 plants. 
Hitherto this Orchid supply has been obtained from the Pacho district, 
that is from an area comprising some three hundred square miles of 
forest, Occupying numerous spurs and ramified ridges of the Eastern 
Cordillera. 
Some fifteen years ago this Orchid was obtainable in the Pacho district 
for a couple of dollars a hundred. Then a peon collector collected as many 
as 200 a day. Now a peon collects about ten a day; and the price of 
collection has increased tenfold. 
Of the 250,000 desired for Europe this year it is hardly possible to 
supply more than a third, and this with strenuous efforts, efforts stimulated 
by the payment of exorbitant prices. Moreover, the result of these efforts 
most seriously exhaust the available supply after the spring of next year. 
It is noteworthy that during the present year something like a fraud is 
being pepetrated upon European Orchid growers. In consequence of the 
difficulty of obtaining an adequate supply of the Pacho type for export, 
native Orchid exporters have undertaken to supply the deficiency by 
bringing to Pacho about 100 mule loads of the inferior types from a distant 
region some four days’ journey. Thus during the past six months some 
50,000 of the inferior forms have been conveyed to Pacho, where they are 
packed for transmission to Europe. These inferior forms on arrival in 
England are not distinguishable from the standard Pacho type until under 
cultivation they have flowered. 
The vast majority of these Orchids grow on trees, and large numbers 
are cut down annually in order to secure the plants. But many plants are 
also found growing on the ground—on banks of moss and on rocks—in 
