4 
THE ORGHbRs REVIEW, 
— 
VOL... oy v1 NOVEMBER, 1907. [No. hq 
ORCHID COLLECTING. 
A very interesting lecture on “‘ Collecting Orchids” was given before the 
Massachusetts Horticultural Society on January 26th last, by Mr. John E. 
Lager, Summit, New Jersey, and has just been published (Trans. Mass. 
Hort. Soc., 1907, pt. i. pp. 37-49). Mr. Lager’s experience has been in 
South America, and he points out that an Orchid collector's life is not an 
easy one, at all events for those who wander from the beaten track in search 
of new fields, where difficulties of transit for the plants discovered are 
sometimes well nigh insuperable. He gives an instance where on one of his 
trips he struck a virgin Cattleya district, which to the best of his knowledge 
had not been previously visited, and although the plants and varieties were 
superb, the problem was'to get them out, as the nearest point where he 
could get transportation with certainty was fifty miles away. It is an 
interesting story how this was eventually accomplished. The methods of 
collecting and preparing for shipment are detailed, but these we may pass 
over, giving a few particulars of the species themselves, and the conditions 
under which they grow. 
The most interesting and important fields for collecting are considered 
to be Colombia first, second Venezuela, and third Brazil, and Mr. Lager 
doubts whether another region can be found where such great numbers of 
first-mentioned. He enumerates eight different 
Species occur as the 
gigas Sanderiana, chrysotoxa, chocoensis, 
Cattleyas as found there—gigas, 
Trianz, bogotensis, Mendelii and Schroedere. 
C. gigas has a very large territory, scattered over several mountain ranges 
of Antioquia, in some the varieties being superb, in others poor. In a few 
isolated places the beautiful C. chrysotoxa occurs, but in such small 
numbers that collecting it would not pay any longer. It grows on the 
in warmer places than C. gigas, and in some- 
found in perfection on grand solitary 
ks or larger limbs as to obtain the’ full 
ome branch will afford sufficient 
* he remarks, 
lower slopes of the mountains, 
what shaded positions. C. gigas Is 
trees, in such positions on the trun 
benefit of the breezes and sunlight, yet S 
shade. ‘I have seen this Cattleya climb up the mountains, 
321 
