THE ORCHIDS. 



321 



ASGR.r.CUM SBSQ UIPEDA LE. 



days, the Cypripediums in 

 particular. Collectors arc 

 hunting still for the floral 

 treasures of countries yet 

 untra veiled, and glorious 

 species are introduced occa- 

 sionally to startle the 

 Orchidist, but naturally 

 distinct Kinds a r e 

 less numerous now than in 

 those days when the world 

 of Orchids was untapped. 

 Reliance for great novelties 

 has been placed upon the 

 hybridist who in his own 

 glasshouse manufactures, by 

 crossing, species likely to give 

 a beautiful progeny. 



Many Orchid collectors 



obtained their treasures at the risk' of life itself, and it is interesting to read in 

 Veitch's manual of Orchidaceous plants of the labours of that celebrated traveller, 

 George Ure-Skinneri, " by whose untiring energy and disinterestedness the most beautiful 

 Orchids of Central America became denizens for the first time of the glasshouses of 

 Great Britain." The following particulars, extracted chiefly from an address delivered 

 before the Royal Horticultural Society in February, 1867, by the famous Mr. Bateman, 

 will be read with interest. Mr. Bateman, one of the greatest of Orchid growers, 

 wrote to Mr. Skinner, who, encouraged by an increasing interest displayed in the flowers 

 of the tropics at home, " laboured incessantly to drag from their hiding-places the forest 

 treasures of Guatemala and transfer them to the shores of bis native land. In pursuit of 

 this object there w as no sacrifice he did not make, or a danger or hardship he did not brave. 

 In sickness or in health, amid the calls of business or the perils of war. whether detained 

 in quarantine on the shores of the Atlantic or shipwrecked on the rocks of the Pacific, he 

 never suffered an opportunity to escape him of adding to the long array of his botanical 

 discoveries . . . it is sufficient to mention here Cattleya Skinneri and Lycaste Skinneri." 

 It would be a long story to tell if one were to write of everyone who may be called 

 pioneers in the art of Orchid culture and hybridisation — of the famous B. S. Williams, John 

 Dominy, Seden, Sander, Veitch, and main others. 



No halo of romance surrounds Orchid cultivation in the present day. The flowers 

 that at one time were possessed by the few are now as familiar as other exotics, and the 

 small grower with his well-kept greenhouse may have his Orchids too, Cypripedium insigne 

 may be or the wondrously beautiful Dendrobium nobile. It is a glorious family of flowers; 

 economically useless, perhaps, but surely making life happier by their presence. The notes 

 that follow are written by one of the greatest Orchid growers of the day. Good advice to 

 the beginner is to urge the importance of not cultivating species or varieties that try the 

 patience and skill of professional growers, but to place faith, firstly, in perhaps twelve, more 

 or less, according to space and requirements, of those kinds that will give bountifully of 

 their flowers without undue exertion on the part of the possessor. When the culture of 

 the more easily-managed kinds is mastered others may be added, and hence a collection 

 of thriving plants will fill the glasshouse. Failure is not pleasant at any time ; it is less 

 so when death means a loss of many pounds, for if some kinds cost less than a shilling 

 others are of considerable value. 



