402 Golden Netted-leaved Orchids. 



reader, unlearned in botany and horticulture, desires to know 

 something of the nature of the claim these plants have upon 

 the admiration of the connoisseur, the accompanying plate 

 will explain it better than pages filled with description and 

 eulogy. It may be said, however, that eulogy in this case is 

 impossible. No picture, no description, no perfervid expres- 

 sions of surprise, delight, or even of admiration, bordering on 

 worship, can convey an adequate idea of the extraordinary 

 beauty of these plants. They are of humble growth, averag- 

 ing from two to six inches in height, and may be described as 

 perennial herbs. The majority have a distinct, fleshy stem, 

 neat ovate or lanceolate leaves, fleshy leaf-stalks, and their 

 roots proceed direct from the base of the stem, without any 

 intermediate bulb, as in the majority of orchids. 



Considered irrespective of their colours, these plants are 

 remarkably neat, and have a character all their own. If the 

 wonderful tracery of their leaves was all washed out, we 

 should still be compelled to admire them for their graceful 

 attitudes, their unassuming elegance, and the beautiful 

 harmony of their proportions. But with these good qualities, 

 they present us with a comment, all unthought of by the poet, 

 who framed the question, " Who can paint like Nature V In 

 all the families of plants, so various in forms and colours, 

 sometimes so gorgeous that they rival sunsets and repeat 

 rainbows, there are no examples of colouring known which 

 can be fairly said to divide with these the praise of being 

 most wonderful and most perfect. 



Usually the leaf appears as if formed of the richest purple, 

 green, or olive -coloured velvet, or glossy satin or silk. Over 

 this groundwork is spread an elaborate reticulation of gold 

 or silver threads, the veining of the leaf being marked 

 out as distinctly as if wrought in real metal of the most 

 cunning workmanship ; and, unlike the picture before us— 

 which is the best that can be done by art of man — the gold 

 has the lustre of gold, and the velvet the softness, and iri- 

 descence, and "touch me not" delicacy of velvet, and the 

 whole thing is so wonderful that though we may have been 

 familiar with the plants for years, we have never yet become 

 thoroughly convinced of their reality. Those can best believe 

 them to be real who have made fortunes by trading in them. 

 The amateur who keeps them for his enjoyment solely may bo 

 permitted to dream on and persist in their unreality, and if 

 there is no wild eastern legend of angels having lost their 

 wings when engaged in missions of mercy in the Indian 

 Archipelago, or of some fragments of the jewellery of heaven 

 having been let fall to give human creatures an idea of the 

 material equivalents of spiritual perfections ; if there are no 



