CHAPTER III 
ORCHIDS 
Future chroniclers will probably consider the popularity of the 
orchid family in the gardens of Europe, but especially of England, 
_ , Belgium, and France, as the most notable character- 
Present . . 
p . istic in the horticultural history of the present era. 
There are several reasons for this popularity. The 
chief one is, perhaps, the remarkable structure of orchid flowers, 
combined with a striking if often bizarre beauty. The wonderful 
contrivances to secure cross-fertilisation by the insects that visit 
the flowers are not only a source of surpassing interest to naturalists 
who can study and see their meaning ; they result in such remarkable 
modifications in flower structure that the layman’s eye is attracted 
also. The fact, too, that many grow high overhead in their native 
forests, on the branches and in the forks of trees, with little or no 
humus into which to send their roots, gives them an extraordinary 
interest to people whose experience of plant-life has been confined 
to terrestrial vegetation. That a plant should grow, thrive, and 
flower on a piece of wood suspended in a glass-house, is as astonish- 
ing to one who sees it for the first time as ever its flowers can be. 
The public interest in orchids is undoubtedly stimulated also by 
the announcement of enormous prices frequently obtained for certain 
rare kinds. Such prices are, of course, far beyond the intrinsic value 
of the plant ; they are analogous to those given for rare postage- 
stamps or uncommon first editions. It is always the rarity of the 
plant, much more than its beauty, that decides its value. In one 
case it may be the white variety of a species with flowers normally 
coloured that is valued ; in another a spotted or coloured variety 
of one normally white. 
During the last generation a noticeable change has occurred in 
the attitude of cultivators towards orchids in general. The old 
collector-spirit is dying out. Then, it was the wild species that 
were sought after, and collections of orchids were made up 
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