Aui^ust, 1913.] 
THK ORCIlin WORM). 
257 
time of their arrival, they succumbed to the 
intensely hot regime to which, in common 
with all other epiphytal Orchids, they were 
subjected in those days. Other individuals 
were subsequently received by Mr. Barker, 
some of which he flowered, though so weakly 
and imperfectly that no true idea had ever 
been formed of the beauty of the plant until 
the publication of the figure, prepared from 
dried specimens, m Dr. Lindley's Sertiun 
Orchidaccum. With this figure there 
appeared also the following remarks, which 
it is due to Dr. Lindley's prescient sagacity 
to quote in full : — 
" ' Epidendrum vitellinum is undoubtedly 
the handsomest of its genus when it is in a 
state of perfect health, a condition in which no 
one has yet seen it m this country. Let us 
hope that the accompanying representation, 
taken from specimens gathered by Mr. 
Hartweg on the Cumbre of Totontepeque at 
9,000 feet above the sea, and in which nothing 
is in the smallest degree exaggerated, will 
rouse the possessors of it to exertion, and 
induce them to give it the care to which its 
singular merits entitle it. In what is known 
of its habits in its native country we possess 
the key to its proper management, and the 
explanation of any failures that have accom- 
panied its cultivation up to the present time. 
It is, strictly speaking, an Alpine plant, 
rooting among lichens, jungermannias, and 
other inhabitants of a cool, moist climate, 
and never exposed on the one hand to a 
higher temperature than 75 degrees, nor on 
the other to one lower than 45 degrees, but 
undoubtedly in its season of rest enduring 
so small an amount of heat as that. Indeed, 
the circumstances mentioned by Humboldt 
that at an elevation of g,ooo feet on the 
mountains of Mexico there are found dog- 
roses and strawberries mixed with pepper- 
worts, and the manita indicates with some 
accuracy the kind of climate enjoyed by 
Epidendrum vitellinum.' 
" Similar advice came from Mr. Skinner, who 
found the species in Guatemala growing 
luxuriantly at an elevation where the ther- 
mometer ranged from 58-38 degrees ; we 
cannot therefore wonder that the plant should 
have found itself ill at case when ])laced 
among East Indian Orchids that will thrive 
in a temperature nearly twice as high as that 
which is proper to itself. The real marvel 
is that we should have j^ersisted so long in 
a course of unnatural treatment that, at a 
great sacrifice of comfort, labour, and expense, 
resulted in a uniform failure from which an 
adherence to the ordinary principles of 
cultivation would have effectually saved us. 
" Something, perhaps, might be due to the 
circumstance that, m the infancy of Orchid 
growing, one. house was expected to receive 
in its comprehensne embrace all epiphytal 
Orchids whatsoever, no matter whether they 
came from the sultry and pestilential coasts 
of Africa and the East Indies, or from the 
mild and pure air of the Mexican and 
Peruvian Andes. Still, after every allowance 
has been made for circumstances and 
conditions which, however applicable to 
Orchid growing m its early days, have long 
since ceased to operate, the extraordinary 
fact remains unquestioned, that for five-and- 
twenty years we have constantly refused cool 
treatment to Orchids from cool countries, 
and because they pined and died under the 
hot treatment to which alone they were 
admitted, we have all but despaired of their 
cultivation. In dealing with other plants 
we have never acted so unreasonably, and I 
have yet to learn that our ancestors ever 
attempted to grow potatoes in a hothouse 
or pine apples in a cold frame. 
" Happily the spell was at length broken by 
Messrs. Jackson, of the Kingston Nursery, 
and shortly afterwards by Messrs. Veitch, 
who, having tried in i860 the effects of 
placing some Guatemala Orchids in a cool 
house, were almost astonished at their own 
success. Still more recently, Mr. Rucker and 
Mr. Day have built cool houses with the most 
satisfactory results, while Mr. Skinner, 
dispensing with all the usual horticultural 
appliances, has found that Lycaste Skinneri 
is perfectly at home, in an ordinary drawing- 
room. 
" Encouraged by these examples, and being 
well aware of the beauty of many Mexican 
and Peruvian Orchids, I was induced this 
