FEBRUARY, 1903,| THE ORCHID REVIEW. 39 
not matter so much, and at any rate I determined to try. I found the 
cheapest way to stock my house was to purchase imported plants, but on 
all hands was advised to begin with established or at any rate semi- 
established plants, in order that I might obtain bloom forthwith, and so 
keep my enthusiasm alive until I had grasped the methods of culture, and 
was able to give that extra care and that special knowledge which the 
culture of newly-imported plants requires. But looking back at my past 
efforts in horticulture and the way in which I had wearied of my plants, 
and considering that I might tire equally soon of plants the flowers of 
which I knew beforehand, I finally decided on trying imported plants, 
since I should if successful with them have my interest and enthusiasm 
kept alive by not knowing quite what novelty I might unearth, and, on the 
other hand, if I failed altogether and had to abandon the cult, the monetary 
loss to me would not be so heavy. I therefore gradually acquired a batch 
of imported plants at the weekly sales, and have now about four hundred 
small plants in my conservatory and in a small lean-to house which I 
erected originally for a resting house. Like all novices, I wanted to have 
too many species, and altogether I got a very mixed lot, from Dendrobes 
and Cattleyas to Lycastes, Lelias, Oncids, and Odontoglots, and if I have 
not been successful with all I have done fairly well all round. They have 
afforded me a vast amount of pleasure and recreation, and an ever increasing 
interest and enthusiasm, quite different from the waning interest I had 
previously experienced in horticulture, and I now feel that for amateurs 
who, like myself, do their own work there is no class of plants so interest- 
ing, so inexpensive, and so cleanly to handle in cultivation as Orchids. 
For the first year or two, of course, my flowers were few and far 
between, and I lost a certain though only a small percentage of plants 
altogether, but I am now hardly ever without flowers, and occasionally 
have quite a good display, and as a test of my success I may mention that 
in 1gor I took a third, and last year a second prize at the Blackburn 
Horticultural Society’s show for a table of Orchids. I live in an excep- 
tionally exposed situation, where for eight or nine months every year the 
weather is cold and very boisterous, hence I have much to contend with to 
maintain anything like regular temperatures; still my plants flourish and 
look better and better every year, and yield better results, while I assure all 
my amateur friends now that Orchids are the only plants worth growing. 
The only drawback, to my mind, is that so many of their beautiful 
flowers lack a perfume. Old growers say to me, ‘‘ What do you want with 
perfume when you have such exquisite variations in color?” and they hint 
that Iam unreasonable and want too much. That may be so, and the 
beauty of the flowers and their lasting qualities no doubt are satisfactory 
enough; but how much more satisfactory they would be if accompanied 
