tempt it; I have
seen its flower but twice. Packers strongly approve the reluctance of
the public to buy, since it restricts importation. The foreman has been
laid up again and again. But they find pleasing curiosities also,
tropic beetles, and insects, and cocoons. Dendrobiums in especial are
favoured by moths; _D. Wardianum_ is loaded with their webs, empty as a
rule. Hitherto the men have preserved no chrysalids, but at this moment
they have a few, of unknown species.

The farmer gets strange bits of advice sometimes, and strange offers of
assistance. Talking of insects reminds him of a letter received last
week. Here it is:--

SIRS,--I have heard that you are large growers of orchids;
am I right in supposing that in their growth or production you are
much troubled with some insect or caterpillar which retards or
hinders their arrival at maturity, and that these insects or
caterpillars can be destroyed by small snakes? I have tracts of
land under my occupation, and if these small snakes can be of use
in your culture of orchids you might write, as I could get you some
on knowing what these might be worth to you.

Yours truly
----

Thence we mount to the potting-rooms, where a dozen skilled workmen try
to keep pace with the growth of the imported plants; taking up, day by
day, those which thrust out roots so fast that postponement is
injurious. The broad middle tables are heaped with peat and moss and
leaf-mould and white sand. At counters on either side unskilled
labourers are sifting and mixing, while boys come and go, laden with
pots and baskets of teak-wood and crocks and charcoal. These things are
piled in heaps against the walls; they are stacked on frames overhead;
they fill the semi-subterranean chambers of which we get a glimpse in
passing. Our farm resembles a factory in this department.

Ascending to the upper earth again, and crossing the corridor, we may
visit number one of those glass-houses opposite. I cannot imagine, much
more describe, how that spectacle would strike one to whom it was wholly
unfamiliar. These buildings--there are twelve of them, side by
side--measure one hundred and eighty feet in length, and the narrowest
has thirty-two feet breadth. This which we enter is devoted to
_Odontoglossum crispum_, with a few _Masdevallias_. There were