which must be repeated in darkness, if he
lived, or if the tiger did not show. But luck did not desert a man so
worthy of favour. He recognised the tree, an old dead stump overhanging
the path, clothed in ferns and creepers. Surveying it as steadily as the
tumult of his spirits would allow, in the fading light he traced a
yellow glimmer among the leaves. Through his field-glass, at twenty yards'
distance, he scrutinised this faint shadow. The tiger grew
impatient--softly it raised its head--so softly behind that screen of
ferns that a casual wayfarer would not have noticed it. But it was the
hint Forstermann needed. With a prayer he took aim, fired--threw down his
rifle and snatched the gun. But crash--stone-dead fell the tiger, and its
skin is a hearthrug on which I stood to hear this tale.

So on March 9, 1884, 40,000 plants of Cypripedium Spicerianum were offered
at Stevens' Auction Rooms.

[Illustration: CYPRIPEDIUM x DR RYAN.]

THE COOL HOUSE

contains about three thousand plants, mostly Odontoglossums. It is a
'lean-to,' of course. Not all the most successful growers use this form of
building. Baron Schroeder's world-famous Odontoglots dwell in an oblong
structure which receives an equal quantity of light from every side. Even
the hardiest of epiphytal orchids are conscious of influences which we
cannot grasp, and those who understand them are unwilling to lay down
fixed rules. But experience shows that under ordinary conditions cool
species thrive in a 'lean-to' better than in a house of full span. It may
be because the back wall retains moisture and gives it out all day
steadily, whilst the air is saturated and dried by turns if fully exposed
to a hot sun. Or it may be because the full light of a span-roof is too
strong in most situations. A collector once told me that he often found
Odontoglossum Pescatorei so buried in Lycopodium as to be invisible until
the flower-spike appeared. Evidently such a plant does not need strong
light. Both causes operate, perhaps. At least the broad fact is so well
established that one might almost fancy Baron Schroeder's Odontoglots would
do better, if that were possible, in a 'lean-to.'

There are three glass partitions, but from either door the full length of
the house is seen; a pleasing vista even when there are no flowers--all
smoothly green on one hand, rocky bank upon the other, studded with ferns
and creepers and an orchid here and there. Why these plants di