CHEAP AND COSTLY ORCHIDS. 



4 



One of the cultivators to leave the beaten track was Mr. (subsequently Sir 

 Joseph) Paxton, at that time gardener to the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, who 

 appears to have been among the first to use houses of different temperatures for orchids 

 coming from various altitudes and localities. His success incited considerable interest 

 among eminent botanists and horticulturists at the time, and many who had the oppor- 

 tunity followed his lead and took advantage of his writings in various periodicals in 

 which he was interested. 



To trace the history of these plants from that time onward to the present would be to 

 find a record such as few other families 

 could show, while to mention a tithe of /~\ 



ordinary kinds have become, they will be 



lower yet as long as collectors continue to send such huge quantities of these home. 

 There is plenty of room for new and striking varieties, as witness the high figures paid 

 when any particularly rare kind is offered, while of many species and varieties long since 

 introduced, but now very rare and valuable, there is still a lack, but to send consign- 

 ments of species that our nurseries and private collections are full of, in quantities far 

 exceeding the demand, is as wrong as it is wasteful. 



Costly orchids having been referred to, a few examples may be given. Aerides 

 Lawrencese realised 210 guineas in the public sale-room. Two small plants of cattleya 



VOL. III. Gr 



those who as cultivators or writers, col- 

 lectors or dealers have contributed to 

 this, would take up far more space than 

 is at disposal in a work of this descrip- 

 tion. From being the expensive luxuries 

 of a few, orchids have become so cheap as 

 to be within the means of any one who 

 aspires to a greenhouse, however small. 

 Their culture is thoroughly understood 

 as regards some of the more beautiful, 

 and though there are even yet refrac- 

 tory kinds, these amount to a very small 

 minority. 



One thing is absolutely certain, and 

 that is that low as the prices of the more 



Fig. 17. Cypkipedium insignb Sanders. 



