New, Rare and Beautiful Plants. 
33 
IV. 
ORCHID5. 
IT IS WELL KNOWN that we have one of the most extensive and vahiable commercial collections of Orchids in 
America, to which we are constantly adding, both by our own propagation of the most desirable species, and 
by large importations from the various quarters of the globe in which are found growing these strange and 
most beautiful members of the floral kingdom. 
Orchid-culture and propagation has always been with us a labor of love as well as a matter of business; 
wherefore we may be pardoned for our enthusiasm. Indeed, anyone who has ever engaged in the culture of Orchids 
will agree with us that it is a most fascinating employment, interesting to every sense of man, and filling him with ad- 
miration and reverence for the great Creator of whose wonders these are but a fragment. There is something about 
these plants which, while they may attract first only from curiosity aroused by the grotesque form of a particular 
species, will always hold the nature-lover with triple bands of interest, surprise and admiration. 
WHAT IS AN ORCHID? 
Among many people, indeed among many flower lovers, there is an inquiry, often unspoken but yet visibly ap- 
parent, as to what really constitutes an Orchid— wherein do Orchidaceous plants differ from the forms familiar to us ? 
A reference to a botany, a dictionary, or even a horticultural encyclopedia does not answer this question satisfac- 
torily, except for trained botanists— and these do not require to know ! Briefly, the Orchide/E is a very large class or 
"natural order " of plants, endogenous (or mostly without bark), and differing essentially from all other classes in the 
construction of the plant, and particularly in the strange and varied forms of the flowers. They are found growing in 
a large part of the habitable globe, although more especially in the warm and torrid regions of the tropics, and their 
very remarkable flowers take on most wonderful and peculiar shapes, often of exquisite beauty, and are generally of 
rich fragrance. There are two main divisions : the terrestrial Orchids, so called because they grow in the ground, 
and the epiphytal (sometimes called celestial) Orchids, which maintain themselves in nature by attaching their long 
adventitious roots to the trunks of trees and rocks, deriving their support from the atmosphere— not from the object 
upon which they fasten, as is often erroneously supposed. These latter usually have thick, fleshy leaves, which, with 
their peculiar " pseudo-bulbs" (really meaning imitalion bulbs), act as storage reservoirs, by which the plant secures, 
in the "wet season " of the tropics, a plentiful supply of moisture to carry it through the hot, rainless " dry season "' 
uninjured. The epiphytal Orchids are by far in the majority, and include the most beautiful and curious forms. 
Although Orchids are generally classified as hothouse, intermediate and coolhouse plants, it is not at all neces- 
sary that every class should have a special house. Fine specimens are often seen growing in a palm house, ordinary 
greenhouse, or regular stove house, and species that love a cool temperature are kept in cold graperies for most of the 
time. We know a very successful grower of everything that he touches who has only one greenhouse, less than a 
hundred feet long, wherein he grows not only all kinds of greenhouse, hothouse and hardy outdoor plants, but also all 
classes of Orchids, all of which seem to do well. This man is the wonderful Jackson Dawson, of the Arnold Arboretum, 
Professor Sargent's able assistant. There is no difliculty in enjoying the exquisite flowers of very many species of 
Orchids in any greenhouse which will produce good rosebuds between October and April. The old idea, obtaining 
even among successful Orchid-growers, that special greenhouses nnist be devoted to the culture of these plants, and 
specially troublesome conditions maintained therein, will be quickly exploded for any one who will visit our nurseries, 
where the most beautiful Orchids are seen blooming and flourishing among Roses, Palms and other more ordinary 
plants as luxuriantly as in their native habitat. Nevertheless, for the benefit ofthose who wish to be very exact in par- 
ticulars of culture, and for general information, we have given every variety in the list below a designating mark, and 
here append the outlines of culture for each class : 
Coolhouse Orchids, or all those marked c in the general list, require a so-called cool treatment. A winter tem- 
perature of from 50 to 55 degrees, with plenty of moisture, is best suited to them, and in summer they should be kept as 
cool as possible; the direct rays of the sun should never reach them. The principal species which constitute this 
section are Odontoglossums, Masdevallias and Oncidiums, together with a few sorts of Lielia, Cattleya, Maxillaria, 
Epidendrum and Disa, all of which are very beautiful and most satisfactory flowering Orchids. The principal thing 
in successfully growing these Orchids is to keep them cool and moist, and to admit plenty of air. 
Orchids for an Intermediate Temperature, marked / in the following list, can be grown in any ordinary green- 
house, or where the facilities are limited, in those parts of houses where cool and hothouse Orchids are grown which 
may favor their requirements as to a little cooler or warmer temperature. 
Hothouse or East Indian Orchids, marked h in this catalogue, include many magnificent species. They are 
usually grown in a stove-plant house, or in any house having a temperature of from 60 to 70 degrees, and a moist 
atmosphere. 
