There is no branch of gardening that has made more rapid 

 progress during the last half century than the cultivation of 

 Orchids. With the facilitated steamship passage afforded by the 

 present day, these gems of the forest may be translated in as 

 many days as it used to take months ; and, by the means at 

 disposal, after they arrive in this country, they are brought 

 practically to the doors of our glasshouses for an outlay of less 

 shillings than it would have cost pounds a few years ago. This 

 increased facility, combined with better-arranged houses and the 

 enlightenment of the grower, especially in the art of hybridisation, 

 has led to the present popularity of the most interesting class of 

 plants that Nature has presented to man. The principal draw- 

 backs to the further and more general cultivation of Orchids are 

 the utterly erroneous ideas that the initial expense is so great, 

 that after the plants have been procured they require very 

 special conditions under which to grow, and that a man with a 

 special practical knowledge of their culture is indispensable. It 

 is easy to refute the first of these objections by simply stating 

 the fact that a selection of plants of the very finest species may 

 be procured from any respectable nurseryman or at the weekly 

 auction sales for the same sum that would purchase a collection 



