ORCHID CONFERENCE. 



17 



tary spirit of competition and give a great deal more for plants 

 than in all probability they are worth. That is a weakness of 

 all collectors, but what I should venture to say is this : that 

 it never can be a very wise or judicious thing to give a large price 

 for an imported Orchid, although it may be said to be extremely 

 rare. Some collector may the next day send over a shipload of 

 the same plant, so that a plant which to-day may be worth 

 £10 or £50 would be only worth as many shillings to-morrow. 

 I have known instances in which collectors have told pitiful tales 

 of the privations that they have gone through in order to procure 

 a particular plant. One collector was said to have waded up to his 

 waist in mud for a fortnight before he found what he was looking 

 for. But when persons desire to buy Orchids which have been 

 raised by cross fertilization in this country, I think it is much 

 more reasonable that they should give a considerable price for 

 them. To begin with, they are the results of horticultural skill 

 in this country and can never be imported from abroad ; and 

 when you consider the vast amount of careful labour and watch- 

 ing which is involved in raising seedling Cattleyas from the 

 minute seed into a flowering state, I think you may fairly admit 

 there is some ground why persons who have succeeded in raising 

 them should think that they are entitled to charge a large price for 

 them. I think I am correct in saying that the first Cattleya seed- 

 ling raised in this country was seventeen years before it flowered, 

 and during all that time it required very careful watching. But 

 with regard to imported Orchids, I might instance, as examples 

 of rarity and beauty combined, that at the present Conference, 

 among the collections which are shown in the conservatory below, 

 there are three very beautiful varieties of the Odontoglossum 

 crispum, for which we are indebted to Baron Schroder ; one 

 of them suffused all over with a sort of port wine stain, 

 another very richly spotted, and the third varying somewhat 

 from them. I believe you might spend a lifetime in searching 

 for, and might flower millions of plants before you would 

 meet with three such varieties as these. Of course we all know 

 that when you get any exceedingly rare and at the same time 

 very beautiful species, it is naturally competed for on all sides, 

 and if plants of that character are sold at a high price, I think 

 there is full justification for it. I do not think I can detain 

 you any longer. I am very much obliged to you for having 

 listened to my remarks. I see that it has been suggested 



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