Upon the Cultivation of Epiphytes of the Orchis Tribe, 43 



tropical forest to the number of objects compelled to submit to 

 the skill of the cultivator. 



It does not, however, appear that any success attended the first 

 attempts to introduce these plants to Europe ; or, if they reached 

 this country, they were speedily lost. The Vanilla seems to have 

 been the first that became established in the hothouses of England, 

 and to have been in fact, the only kind that was known to Miller. 

 According to the Hortus Kewensis, two or three and twenty species, 

 only, had become fixed at Kew during the last ten years of the 

 last century, and it is certain, that from this period, up to the 

 establishment of the Society's Garden at Chiswick, the number 

 had increased but very slowly. A stimulus had indeed been given 

 to the pursuit by Mr. Cattley, but the single efforts of that gen- 

 tleman had not been sufficient to produce any considerable acces- 

 sion to the number of species in cultivation, although they con- 

 tributed, in an important degree, to improve the then existing 

 methods of treating them. It would seem that not more than twelve 

 or fourteen species had been added to the Garden at Kew, in the 

 first thirteen years of the present century, and such bad success 

 had attended their cultivation upon the continent, that only nine- 

 teen species were mentioned, in 1822, in Professor Link's Cata- 

 logue of the Garden at Berlin, one of the richest in Europe. 



It was supposed that this very remarkable instance of want of 

 success, in the preservation of plants of such universal interest, was 

 due to some peculiar difficulty in their cultivation, and it was re- 

 solved that an attempt should be made, in the Garden of the 

 Society, to overcome it. A corresponding feeling elsewhere seems 

 to have been called forth about the same time, and probably by 

 the Society's example, so that it has come to pass that, not to 

 mention the Chiswick Garden, private establishments in this country 

 can boast of far richer collections, and more successful management 

 than the most celebrated gardens of the continent. It is well 



