THE ORCHID REVIEW. 3 
Society took a prominent part in sending abroad collectors in search of 
novelties, and their introductions, of course, included large numbers of 
Orchids, which unfortunately seldom survived long the treatment to which 
they were subjected. Lindley, who greatly wished to remedy this, under- 
took some inquiries into the conditions under which these plants grew in a 
wild state, and embodied his results in a paper read before the Society in 
May, 1830, in which he recommended heat and plenty of humidity as the 
two most essential conditions (Trans. Hort. Soc., ser. 2, i., pp. 42-50). The 
altitude at which many of the plants grow was unfortunately not taken 
into consideration—indeed the facts were not then known—so that Lindley’s 
recommendations failed to effect the improvement which he confidently 
anticipated. A remark, however, that “the time is not distant when the 
beauty cf the Dendrobiums and Bulbophyllums of India, of the Oncidiums 
of the West Indies, of the Aérides of China, and of the Epidendrums of 
Peru, will add acharm to every hothouse,” was prophetic. 
Importations were soon pouring into the country, but as Messrs. Veitch 
remark, “too often only to tantalize the purchasers with a transitory sight of 
their beautiful flowers and curious forms, and then to languish and die,” in 
the hot, steamy, unventilated stoves to which they were consigned on their 
arrival, “to the temperatures of which they were as great strangers as to 
our severest winter frosts.” Protests soon followed against the “ folly of 
subjecting Orchids which naturally grew in a temperate climate to the 
stifling heat of an Indian jungle.” Allan Cunningham from Australia, as 
early as 1835, followed by Skinner, who had collected Orchids on the 
Cordilleras of Guatemala, Gibson, in the Khasia hills, Gardner, on the 
Organ mountains, William Lobb, in the Peruvian Andes, and Mottley, on 
the mountains of Java, all pointed out how unnatural the existing method 
of treatment was. Meantime a few intelligent gardeners at home perceived 
the necessity of some radical change of treatment, and one of the earliest 
was Joseph Cooper, gardener to Earl Fitzwilliam, at Wentworth, who 
adopted a lower mean temperature and admitted fresh air into the houses. 
The effect of this treatment may be seen in a remark made by Dr. William 
Hooker in 1835:—‘‘I must confess that the sight of this collection, whether 
the vigorous growth and beauty ef the foliage, or the number of splendid 
species blossoming at one time be considered, far exceeded my warmest 
anticipations.” 
The Duke of Devonshire, stimulated, it is said, by the sight of the re- 
markable Oncidium Papilio, began to form a collection in 1833, and three 
years later it contained upwards of three hundred species. In 1837 he sent 
Gibson on a mission to the Khasia Hills, which resulted in the introduction 
of a large number of novelties, and as the collection was continually being 
increased from other sources, it became in ten years the largest private col- 
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