ORCHID CONFERENCE. 



15 



little disposed to complain that we do not get a few more Orchids 

 in it — (hear, hear) — and I sometimes think they might worthily 

 replace some of the rather insignificant " foreign weeds with 

 barbarous binomials " which are to be found there. I believe 

 there are now hardly fewer than five thousand different species 

 of Orchids known, and out of that number I should think there 

 are close upon two thousand under cultivation. I can say with 

 regard to one particular genus, the Dendrobiwn, that I have 

 had in my own collection upwards of one hundred species 

 under cultivation at the same time. There is another curious 

 circumstance to be noted in connection with Orchids, and that is 

 that I do not see, in the case of most of them, there is the least 

 reason why they should ever die. The parts of the Orchideae 

 are annually reproduced in a great many instances, and there is 

 really no reason why they should die, unless, as is generally the 

 case with those in captivity, they are killed by errors in cultivation. 

 I suppose it is quite possible to give plants, and especially 

 Orchids, constitutional diseases such as human beings suffer 

 from. I believe it is quite possible to give what answers to gouty 

 affections and other such diseases to plants by injudicious diet, 

 and by feeding them either too well or on improper food. There 

 is yet another curious circumstance to which I will refer. I think 

 the industry and research of collectors is making us better and 

 better acquainted with the fact that in some of the principal 

 genera of Orchids — in Cattleya, in Dendrobium, for example — there 

 exist albinos, and that shows a little, I think, the contrariety of 

 human nature. For, whereas, in these genera we search out and 

 endeavour to secure the albino varieties, in others that are 

 naturally white we endeavour to secure coloured varieties. Then 

 with regard to the collecting of Orchids, in former years col- 

 lectors were sent out by wealthy amateurs, gentlemen who 

 wished to adorn their gardens with new plants and flowers ; 

 for instance, the Duke of Devonshire and the Duke of Northumber- 

 land, and other people occupying similar positions, and the 

 Eoyal Horticultural Society did a great deal of very good 

 work in employing very enterprising and skilful collectors. But 

 all that, so far as private people are concerned, has come to an 

 end, and I think, on the whole, it is to the advantage of the 

 cultivation of Orchids that these matters should have passed 

 into the hands of business people, who collect Orchids as a matter 

 of commerce ; and in referring to that for a moment, I think we 



