[52 J 



as to the natural or wild origin of these yellow ground variations we must look to the natural habitats of O. Pescatorei and 

 its relations, cousins, and aunts in New Granada, and Pamplona and elsewhere! O. Pescatorei in its native wilds is 

 " not always happy because alone," for it is now and then found as a next-door neighbour in " the same row of houses"— 

 we mean on the same tree— with O. Lindleyanum, O. odoratum, O. triumphans, or O. crocidipterum, &c; hence need we 

 wonder at the vagaries of seedlings already known, or to be anticipated from the cheery labours of Dr. Watts' "busie 

 Bee !" Need we wonder at our ecstacy when we think if only for a moment of the potentialities to be expected as the 

 result of the co-operative industry now and for ever to be carried on between the insects and these flowers most beautiful 

 that the world has ever " seen in visions or dreamed of in dreams." 



What a world of delight is not opened to the orchidist of our time ! No two hybrid-orchids, whether wild or 

 reared in gardens, are ever precisely alike ! Nature is always trying experiments just as we are, and if we only imitate 

 her a golden harvest of flower beauty awaits us, not only in the present but in that ever-coming by-and-bye ! 



To the bee or humming bird, or butterfly, or night-flying moth we owe for the most part such lovely products as 

 O. x excellens (v. Garden, CCCXXX.), with its yellow sepals red blotched, its soft, golden petals, and its white labellum 

 decorated with ruby blotches. 



The late Prof. Reichenbach considered this a hybrid between O. Pescatorei and O. tripudians, in which, however, 

 he was wrong, as has subsequently been proved. O. triumphans is the other agent in the production. 



In conclusion, we may say that we hold many yellow forms, but that no one can imagine or foretell what gems 

 may not occur in consignments of O. Pescatorei and O. crispum, now that the outlying habitats have been discovered and 

 are being worked by our most intelligent and cultured of collectors— those heroes who take their lives in their hands 

 and travel over many an unknown road in order to give us here at home more lovely blossoms than we ever saw before. 



Our plate was taken from a plant in the collection of Count A. dc Germiny, Chateau de Gouville (S. Infer.), France. 



