4 
THE ORCHID WORLD. 
sparingly leafy, so that the Vanda which 
grows on their limbs is fully exposed to sun, 
rain and wind. There is no moss or lichen on 
the branches with the Vanda, whose roots 
sprawl over the dry rough bark." 
" The atmosphere is on the whole humid, 
and extremely so during the rains ; but there 
is no damp heat, or stagnation of the air, and 
at the flowering season the temperature ranges 
between 60 and 80 degrees, there is much 
sunshine, and both air and bark are dry during 
the day : in July and August, during the rains, 
the temperature is a little higher than above, 
but in winter it falls much lower, and hoar- 
frost forms on the ground." 
" Now this winter's cold, summer's heat, and 
autumn's drought, and above all, this constant 
free exposure to fresh air and the winds of 
heaven, are what of all things we avoid 
exposing our orchids to in England." 
" On the following day we turned out our 
Vanda to dress the specimiens for travelling, 
and preserve the flowers for botanical 
purposes. Of the latter we had 360 panicles, 
each composed of from six to twenty-one 
broad pale-blue tessellated flowers, three and 
a half to four inches across : and they formed 
three piles on the floor of the verandah, each 
a yard high : — what would we not have given 
to have been able to transport a single panicle 
to a Chiswick fete." 
" We collected seven men's loads of this 
superb plant for the Royal Gardens at Kew ; 
but owing to unavoidable accidents and 
difficulties, few specimens reached England 
alive." 
" A gentleman who sent his gardener with 
us to be shown the locality, was more success- 
ful : he sent one man's load to England on 
commission, and though it arrived in a very 
poor state, it sold for ;^300, the individual 
plants fetching prices varying from £^ to ;^i^io. 
Had all arrived alive, they would have cleared 
iTl.OOO. An active collector, with the facili- 
ties I possessed, might easily clear from 
;6^2,ooo to £^3,000 in one season, by the sale of 
Khasia orchids." 
The above was written exactly sixty years 
ago, since when the price has fallen to a sum 
which no one need hesitate to part with, and 
in exchange receive plants which under careful 
growing will produce results very similar to 
those seen by Sir Joseph Hooker during his 
travels in 1850. 
Under cultivation in this country the 
spikes, two and three of which not unfre- 
quently appear simultaneously on one plant, 
carry from ten to twenty flowers, the latter 
number, however, rarely, and only on plants 
of extraordinary vigour. 
It is seldom that any two plants of this 
beautiful Vanda have flowers exactly alike, 
almost every shade of colour is seen from 
white and a soft bluish-tinted white, to quite 
a decided blue tessellated with a darker shade, 
and in the best varieties each flower is about 
four inches in diameter. 
The best type of this blue orchid grows in 
a restricted area of the Southern Shan States, 
and of this type Messrs. Sander and Sons' 
collector, W. Micholitz, has of recent years 
sent home several very big consignments from 
which have flowered the three varieties, 
" Dreadnought," " R. Chollet " and " Weston- 
birt " variety. 
Collectors tell us that Vandas are found 
growing in very open situations both on trees 
and rocks. The plants from the latter 
position are short leaved, and have been 
growing in the full sunshine ; while those found 
on the trees have longer and greener foliage. 
The temperature in the cool season drops to 
freezing point, and the plants in the morning 
are often covered with hoar-frost ; of course 
such a low temperature cannot be recom- 
mended for plants grown imder glass, as in 
their Indian home they become hardened 
owing to their constant exposure to wind, 
rain, sun, and varying temperatures, while in 
hot seasons the heat becomes almost unbear- 
able. 
This species has acquired the reputation 
of being a difficult one to deal with, and no 
doubt with some justice, as a plant accustomed 
to such immense variations of temperature is, 
of course, difficult tO' grow in our climate. It 
is impossible to imitate exactly the conditions 
under which these plants grow naturally, but 
we can come as near to them as possible by 
placing the plants in a good light, and giving 
as much air as possible when climatic 
conditions will allow, especially in the 
