NINETEENTH CENTURY 
281 
being named in his honour. His gardener, Joseph Cooper, 
was one of the first successful growers. In 1833 the orchid 
collection at Chatsworth was begun. The Duke of Devonshire 
procured plants from the East, and Paxton, who was his 
gardener at the time, was enabled to cultivate many success¬ 
fully, and publish the interesting records in the Magazine of 
Botany , which he edited. The orchid-growers since then that 
have been successful are too numerous to mention. Such 
collections as that of Sir Trevor Lawrence, Major Holford, Mr. 
Joseph Chamberlain, or Baron Schroeder, are among the 
wonders of the modern garden. 
The history of the introduction of many of these orchids 
reads like an exciting adventure or fairy-tale. The story of 
the lost orchid Cattleya labiata vera is known to all orchid 
lovers. The plant was originally sent home from Brazil to 
Dr. Lindley by Mr. W. Swainson, as a packing round some 
lichens, in 1818, 1 and Lindley described and named it in 
memory of Mr. Cattley, a great horticulturalist. For years 
after that date other species were sent home, which passed for 
the true labiata, until it was discovered that the vera no 
longer existed in cultivation, and that its native home was for¬ 
gotten. For fifty years it was the aim of all collectors to find this 
treasure again. By chance at last, in 1889, some plants wore for¬ 
warded home to M. Moreau, of Paris, from whom Messrs. Sanders 
learnt its habitat, and sent off in search of it, and soon all 
orchid growers were able to add the long-lost treasure to their 
collections. Many fruitless voyages have been made to pro¬ 
cure these floral wonders, and frequently the collector has 
at last met with them when least expected. One plant of 
Cypriftedium Curtisi was sent home by Mr. Curtis from Penang 
in 1882, and no more were forthcoming, until collectors 
despaired of ever finding it. At last an orchid-hunter called 
Ericsson, climbing a mountain in Sumatra, took shelter in a 
little hut. On the walls he saw among the names of the 
travellers who had rested there a drawing of the very flower 
he was in search of, and underneath was written, “ C. C.’s con¬ 
tribution to the adornment of the house.” He at once set to 
work to look for it in the neighbourhood, and at length he found 
1 About Orchids. By Frederick Boyle, 1893. 
