40 
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Orange blooms sweeten the air, my children play, and my best 
poem be written.” 
In conclusion I should like to tender my best thanks to the 
ranchers and other gentlemen who have so graciously given me 
such able assistance in the way of information, which has 
enabled me to lay before the Fellows of the Royal Horticultural 
Society an idea of the resources and advantages of this beautiful 
country of California. 
SKETCHES OF WILD ORCHIDS IN GUIANA. 
By Everard F. im Thurn, F.R.H.S. 
Nearly twenty-one years ago the Fates led me to Guiana and, 
nearly ever since, have detained me in the wilder and more 
remote parts of that region. Throughout I have taken an 
interest in the plants, and especially in the Orchids ; and of 
late years whatever time I have been able to afford to botanical 
hobbies has been devoted almost exclusively to the somewhat 
arduous task of collecting, drying, dissecting, and drawing 
Orchids, many of them so small that an entire clump, root and 
ail, and in full flower, would pass without touching through a 
finger-ring, and in making frantic efforts to grow these in my 
garden. It has been a long promise to the Editor of the 
“ Royal Horticultural Society’s Journal ” that I should give him 
some notes of the experiences thus gained, and he now insists 
on the immediate performance of this promise. 
I find myself embarrassed by the vast number of the scraps 
of Orchid lore which the abovementioned circumstances have 
put into my head, and still more by the desultory and 
unconnected character of the collection. Probably the only 
feasible way to fulfil my promise at present is to jot down 
certain pictures which remain in my mind of scenes in which 
Orchids were a prominent feature, and to leave it to my readers 
to pick out for themselves the scraps of information as to the 
natural conditions under which the Orchids mentioned grow, and 
as to the artificial conditions which may therefore be best applied 
in the cultivation of these. 
Lest, however, my horticultural readers should after this 
