nce to Phaloenopsis. It is proper to
add that the most enterprising of Assurance Companies do not yet see
their way to accept any kind of risks in the orchid trade; importers
must bear all the burden. To me it seems surprising that the plants can
be sold so cheap, all things considered. Many persons think and hope
that prices will fall, and that may probably happen with regard to some
genera. But the shrewdest of those very shrewd men who conduct the
business all look for a rise.

_Od. Harryanum_ always reminds me--in such an odd association of ideas
as everyone has experienced--of a thunderstorm. The contrast of its
intense brown blotches with the azure throat and the broad, snowy lip,
affect me somehow with admiring oppression. Very absurd; but _on est
fait comme ca_, as Nana excused herself. To call this most striking
flower "Harryanum" is grotesque. The public is not interested in those
circumstances which give the name significance for a few, and if there
be any flower which demands an expressive title, it is this, in my
judgment. Possibly it was some Indian report which had slipped his
recollection that led Roezl to predict the discovery of a new
Odontoglot, unlike any other, in the very district where _Od. Harryanum_
was found after his death, though the story is quoted as an example of
that instinct which guides the heaven-born collector. The first plants
came unannounced in a small box sent by Senor Pantocha, of Colombia, to
Messrs. Horsman in 1885, and they were flowered next year by Messrs.
Veitch. The dullest who sees it can now imagine the excitement when this
marvel was displayed, coming from an unknown habitat. Roezl's
prediction occurred to many of his acquaintance, I have heard; but Mr.
Sander had a living faith in his old friend's sagacity. Forthwith he
despatched a collector to the spot which Roezl had named--but not
visited--and found the treasure. The legends of orchidology will be
gathered one day, perhaps; and if the editor be competent, his volume
should be almost as interesting to the public as to the cognoscenti.

I have been speaking hitherto of Colombian Odontoglossums, which are
reckoned among the hardiest of their class. Along with them, in the same
temperature, grow the cool Masdevallias, which probably are the most
difficult of all to transport. There was once a grand consignment of
_Masdevallia Schlimii_, which Mr. Roezl despatched on his own account.
It contained twenty-seven thousand