136 JOURNAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETT. 



INCONSPICUOUS AND RARELY CULTIVATED ORCHIDS. 



By W. H. White, Orchid Grower to Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart. 



[Read March 26, 1901.J 



Oechid culture during the last quarter of a century has extended with 

 great rapidity, due to the increased taste for and appreciation of this 

 beautiful and interesting class of plants. But there has always been a 

 general disposition among Orchid growers, not only in England but also 

 abroad, to cultivate only the more showy genera of the great Orchid 

 family. It is not my wish to attempt to persuade any who have not a 

 real liking for the curiously constructed and ''inconspicuous" genera, 

 termed by some " Botanical Orchids," to enter on this branch of Orchid 

 culture. For unless it be earnestly taken up, it would only result in 

 disappointment and the loss of rare plants, the supply of which is all too 

 limited to meet the needs of those who, having a taste for these little 

 plants, find in them a real and ever-varying pleasure. It is said of 

 Orchids that they, like domestic animals, soon find out whether they are 

 under the care of those who really love them, and that they respond by 

 thriving or failing accordingly. This may be said to be illustrated by the 

 frail little genera in a marked degree. For while with care and attention 

 a large proportion of them are fairly easy to cultivate, neglect for a very 

 short time may bring about their loss. Still I would advise Orchid 

 growers to give these plants a greater share of attention, even if that be 

 confined to the careful cultivation of the few little curiosities which from 

 time to time fall into their hands by being imported on masses of showier 

 Orchids. In this way some few collections, whose owners formerly held 

 the " inconspicuous " Orchids in contempt, now contain interesting and 

 valued groups of them. Above these considerations, too, for one who 

 cares for the singular waifs and strays of Orchid life, there is the know- 

 ledge that h-e is contributing in some degree to the cause of science. For 

 out of such chance arrivals many a new genus or species has been 

 recorded and described, and a still larger number of those previously 

 described have by their appearance in gardens supplied herbaria with 

 coveted material. 



Perusal of any botanical work on Orchids discloses the fact that there 

 are a very large number which are not at present in cultivation. Any of 

 these may make an appearance at any time, if only in one or two speci- 

 mens, and on the care which they receive on arrival depends the chance 

 of their survival to be incorporated with the already cultivated garden 

 Orchids. Most of the showier genera have among them modest repre- 

 sentatives which may be classed with those I am attempting to commend, 

 while genera such as Masdevallia, Cirrhopetaium, Bulbophyllum, Poly- 

 stachya, Eria, Octomeria, Stelis, &c., are largely composed of what are 

 called by some botanical cm*iosities. All these have interesting structural 

 peculiarities, and some of them are a source of wonder to those who see 

 theni for the first time, and a source of lasting .interest to those who care 

 to make a study of them. 



