May 7, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
867 
7 
th 
Royal Society at 4.30 r.M.; Linnean Society at 8 P. m. 
8 
f 
Quekett Club at 8 P.M. 
9 
s 
Royal Botanic Society at 3.45 P.M. 
10 
SUN 
5tii Sunday after Easter. Show of Plants at Antwerp (two days). 
11 
M 
[Orchid Conference and Exhibition (two days). 
12 
TU 
Royal Horticultural Society, Fruit and Floral Committees at 11 a.m. 
13 
W 
Society of Arts at 8 P.M. 
FLORAL INVESTMENTS. 
TILITARIANISMis a characteristic of the times. 
However much the “ beautiful ” may be appre¬ 
ciated, something useful, substantial, tangible 
is the object of the majority in their conduct 
and speculations. It is quite true that numbers 
of persons indulge in “ fancies ” solely for the 
pleasure they derive from them, but even the 
enjoyment of those ardent individuals is not 
lessened if their hobbies “ pay.” They are apt 
to estimate their possessions by their rarity, or in other words 
by their value in pounds sterling. The most devoted lovers 
of art will not give £5000 for a picture if it is only worth 
£4000, and small blame to them. If they did it would be a 
reflection on their judgment. It is the same with plants. 
Enthusiastic amateurs buy them, grow them, derive pleasure 
from them. That is their main object; but the enjoyment 
of their possessions is not mitigated by the consciousness 
that they are worth a few hundred pounds more than they 
cost. They do not want to sell what they have obtained— 
that is their last thought ; but it is none the less satisfactory 
to feel they hold value for money according to the current 
prices of the day. 
It is on this principle of intrinsic value for articles pos¬ 
sessed that may be traced the earnestness that is displayed 
in the acquisition of cherished plants. Outsiders marvel at 
what they consider the extraordinary conduct of persons who 
will give£100for a plant that can be carried home in the pocket 
of the purchaser; but as a rule the purchaser has a pretty 
good idea of what he is doing, and in the majority of cases 
specialists have good grounds for their action, regarded even 
from a commercial point of view. We make no reference to 
recognised traders in plants. Their business is to buy and 
sell to the best advantage ; but non-traders work on the same 
lines, and very properly. They like to feel that their cherished 
treasures are increasing in value, as this is at once evidence 
of the skill of the cultivator and the prescience of the pur¬ 
chaser. Everybody likes to feel that their possessions, if sold 
to-morrow, would realise considerably more than has been 
invested in procuring and maintaining them. There are 
many kinds of flowers and plants, well selected, well grown, 
and judiciously increased, that will do this. There are col¬ 
lections both of florists’ flowers, hardy rarities—and espe¬ 
cially, perhaps, of Orchids—that have increased in value to 
a remarkable extent, and they represent a satisfactory 
increase of the capital of the owners of them. It is quite 
true there are contrary instances—namely, of plants con¬ 
stantly deteriorating. This often arises from the very neces¬ 
sity of the case, and is more frequently the result of unsuit¬ 
able quarters for them than of want of skill or care on the part 
of the cultivator. But the real specialist makes due provision 
for the accommodation of his plants. He knows their value 
and requirements, and acts accordingly. This is but a 
matter of prudence; yet the fact cannot be overlooked that 
numbers of persons spend considerable sums in plants that 
they do not understand, and cannot, therefore, see the 
.tfo. 254.—Von. X., Third Skk'es 
“ good ” of providing the necessary means and conveniences 
for growing them well and increasing their value. This is 
to be regretted, both in the interest of the owner of them and 
the individual in whose charge they are, for notwithstanding 
his efforts to prevent it he has to endure, and a painful 
endurance it is, the consciousness of their steady yet certain 
depreciation. Plants cannot increase in beauty and value 
when the cultivator is ever engaged in a contest with adverse 
influences—a continual struggle to keep the plants alive; 
whereas, when sound judgment is exercised in selection, and 
skilful culture is combined with adequate means, floral in¬ 
vestments are satisfactorily remunerative. 
Our thoughts have been directed to this subj ct from 
glancing over a little manual on Orchids by our coadjutor, 
Mr. Lewis Castle. It is not our intention to give any elabo¬ 
rate review of this work. We shall merely extract from it a 
short chapter on the value of Orchids. 
“ The auction sales conducted at Stevens’s Rooms, King 
Street, Covent Garden, for so many years, and latterly at 
Messrs. Protheroe’s, Cheapside, have dispersed many fine 
collections, and have also been the means of large numbers 
of imported Orchids being placed in the hands of the public. 
A record of these sales would afford some curious facts in the 
history of Orchids, but a short notice of the principal prices 
that have been obtained will suffice to indicate the enormous 
amount of money that has been expended upon these plants 
within the past forty years. Good prices were obtained as 
early as 1880, such as £26 for Sobralia macrantha ; £10 for 
Arpophyllum giganteum; £15 for Lielia superbiens, and £17 
for Barkeria spectabilis. Sales of 48 to 168 lots realising 
from £118 to £600. In 1846 Mr. Barker’s collection was 
sold to Mr. Blandy of Reading for £900, and about the same 
time a plant of Vanda Lowii was sold for £30, a large collec¬ 
tion of Central American Orchids from Mr. Skinner pro¬ 
ducing £613. Some of Mr. Bateman’s plants were sold in 
1850, when Angrfecum eburneum fetched 19 guineas, Vanda 
suavis 17 guineas, and others of proportionate amounts. At 
the sale of Warscewicz’s introduction in 1853,. the chief 
amount was 16 guineas for Epidendrum Frederici Gulielmi, 
and at another sale the same year Phalienopsis grandiflora 
realised £15 10s. Prices began to increase, and in 1855, at 
Mr. Schroder’s sale, Aerides Schrcederi fetched £89, Vanda 
suavis £31, Aerides affine £26, and Oncidium Lanceanum, 
said to be the finest plant then in cultivation, £16. The 
Loddiges’ collection was sold in 1856, and one portion of 280 
lots raised the sum of £717, Vanda Batemanni £43, Aerides 
nobile £21, A. Schroederi 19 guineas, and Saccolabium am- 
pullaceum £15. In the same year the Horticultural 
Society’s collection was brought to the hammer, 300 lots 
realising £554, while in 1859 another portion was sold for 
£470. 
“ At the first sale the most remarkable plants sold were 
Phalaenopsis amabilis, which was bought by the Duke of 
Devonshire for £68 5s., and this was the fine specimen which 
Mr. Fortune purchased in the Island of Luzon for a dollar 
ten or twelve years previously, and Lselia superbiens, the 
finest specimen in Europe, with 220 pseudo-bulbs, and 
17 feet in circumference, £36 15s., bought by Mr. hairrie of 
Liverpool; at the latter sale, Aerides Schroederi realised £31. 
Before this time it is said that the Duke of Devonshire had 
given Messrs. Rollisson & Son £100 for Phalaenopsis 
amabilis. In 1861, Dr. Butler’s Orchids were sold, 300 lots 
producing £1500, Saccolabium guttatum and S. giganteum 
fetching £52 to £46 respectively. At a sale in Liverpool in 
1868 Messrs. Veitch gave 67 guineas for the finest plant of 
Dendrobium Falconeri in the country, which a few years 
before had been bought for 4 guineas. The Meadow Bank 
collection of 600 lots was sold for £2000, Lselia anceps 
Dawsoni realising £46, and Cattleya exoniensis £32. The 
Pendlebury Orchids were also dispersed for the sum of £2824, 
some very high prices having been obtained, as £55 for 
Odontoglossum mevium majus, Saccolabium giganteum £72, 
No. 1910.—Vol. LXXII., Old Shriek 
