many of them will do well
enough. That is to say, they will make such a show of blossom as is
mighty satisfactory in the winter time. We must not look for
"specimens," but there should be bloom enough to repay handsomely the
very little trouble they give. Among those that may be treated so are
_D. Wardianum_, _Falconeri_, _crassinode_, _Pierardii_, _crystallinum_,
_Devonianum_--sometimes--and _nobile_, of course. Probably there are
more, but these I have tried myself.

_Dendrobium Wardianum_, at the present day, comes almost exclusively
from Burmah--the neighbourhood of the Ruby Mines is its favourite
habitat. But it was first brought to England from Assam in 1858, when
botanists regarded it as a form of _D. Falconeri_. This error was not so
strange as its seems, for the Assamese variety has pseudo-bulbs much
less sturdy than those we are used to see, and they are quite pendulous.
It was rather a lively business collecting orchids in Burmah before the
annexation. The Roman Catholic missionaries established there made it a
source of income, and they did not greet an intruding stranger with
warmth--not genial warmth, at least. He was forbidden to quit the town
of Bhamo, an edict which compelled him to employ native collectors--in
fact, coolies--himself waiting helplessly within the walls; but his
reverend rivals, having greater freedom and an acquaintance with the
language, organized a corps of skirmishers to prowl round and intercept
the natives returning with their loads. Doubtless somebody received the
value when they made a haul, but who, is uncertain perhaps--and the
stranger was disappointed, anyhow. It may be believed that unedifying
scenes arose--especially on two or three occasions when an agent had
almost reached one of the four gates before he was intercepted. For the
hapless collector--having nothing in the world to do--haunted those
portals all day long, flying from one to the other in hope to see
"somebody coming." Very droll, but Burmah is a warm country for jests
of the kind. Thus it happened occasionally that he beheld his own
discomfiture, and rows ensued at the Mission-house. At length Mr. Sander
addressed a formal petition to the Austrian Archbishop, to whom the
missionaries owed allegiance. He received a sympathetic answer, and some
assistance.

From the Ruby Mines also comes a Dendrobium so excessively rare that I
name it only to call the attention of employes in the new company. This
is _D. rhodop