372 THE ORCHID REVIEW. | DECEMBER, 1906. 
To begin with: If you are perfectly satisfied that you ought to have a 
First-class Certificate and your friends aid and abet you in this belief, do 
not be down-hearted or lose your temper if you do not get one. It is on 
record that man is liable to err, and Orchid Committees are subject to the 
same frailty. There is not the slightest doubt but that your judgment, 
supported by that of your friends, is quite unimpeachable. In an extremity 
of this kind, you may find some solace in endeavouring to instil fortitude 
into others who are smarting under the same disappointment. 
In the course of the year you are sure to have a good many visitors, and, 
among others, there is sure to drop in, now and then, the individual who, 
while walking through your houses, talks incessantly of the plants he has 
at home. If he deigns at all to pass a remark about one of yours, it will be 
to compare it—unfavourably, of course—to one that he flowered last year, 
has in bud, or saw, or heard of, or expects to hear of; but he nearly always 
has it at home. He will jubilate on the immensity of the bulbs his plants 
are making, and when you come to that special feature of yours—upon 
which you have come to rather pride yourself—he will exclaim, “ Ah! you 
ought to see mine,” and then will follow in molecular detail the wonderful 
treatment by which means only such great attainments can be got. By 
the time he has finished with you, you will feel limp and courageless, and 
you will wonder how on earth you ever came to look on your plants as 
other than the veriest trash. In an affliction of this kind, hasten to repay 
that man’s visit, and have important business a long, 
next time he calls. 
If a man whispers to you that he has hundreds of thousands of Odonto- 
glossum seedlings, and that they are coming up “ 
fact, he does not know what he is going to do with them all eventually—go 
and see them, and don’t forget to take a magnifying glass with you. You 
might, if possible, take one with more than one lens, so that it is of 
considerable power, for fear you may be disappointed. 
Sub Rosa.—If the “‘guv’nor” comes down the garden in the morning 
with a brand new knife in his hand and a gleam of vivisection in his eye, 
make sure that he has surgical designs on the plant purchased the day 
before. Do not be an acce 
long way from home 
all over the place ’”?—in 
value. Do not be 
So meticulous over cleanliness as this. The sequel to 
the above story is a 
painful one: that plant promptly died. 
