hows. Thus
horticulturists became aware, just when the information was most
welcome, that a large family of plants unknown awaited their attention;
plants quite new, of strangest form, of mysterious habits, and beauty
incomparable. Their notions were vague as yet, but the fascination of
the subject grew from year to year. Whilst several hundred species were
described in books, the number in cultivation, including all those
gathered by Sir Joseph Banks, and our native kinds, was only fifty. Kew
boasted no more than one hundred and eighteen in 1813; amateurs still
watched in timid and breathless hope.

Gradually they came to see that the new field was open, and they entered
with a rush. In 1830 a number of collections still famous in the legends
of the mystery are found complete. At the Orchid Conference, Mr. O'Brien
expressed a "fear that we could not now match some of the specimens
mentioned at the exhibitions of the Horticultural Society in Chiswick
Gardens between 1835 and 1850;" and extracts which he gave from reports
confirm this suspicion. The number of species cultivated at that time
was comparatively small. People grew magnificent "specimens" in place of
many handsome pots. We read of things amazing to the experience of forty
years later. Among the contributions of Mrs. Lawrence, mother to our
"chief," Sir Trevor, was an Aerides with thirty to forty flower spikes;
a Cattleya with twenty spikes; an _Epidendrum bicornutum_, difficult to
keep alive, much more to bloom, until the last few years, with "many
spikes;" an Oncidium, "bearing a head of golden flowers four feet
across." Giants dwelt in our greenhouses then.

So the want of enthusiasts was satisfied. In 1852 Mr. B.S. Williams
could venture to publish "Orchids for the Million," a hand-book of
world-wide fame under the title it presently assumed, "The Orchid
Grower's Manual." An occupation or amusement the interest of which grows
year by year had been discovered. All who took trouble to examine found
proof visible that these masterworks of Nature could be transplanted and
could be made to flourish in our dull climate with a regularity and a
certainty unknown to them at home. The difficulties of their culture
were found to be a myth--we speak generally, and this point must be
mentioned again. The "Million" did not yet heed Mr. Williams'
invitation, but the Ten Thousand did, heartily.

I take it that orchids meet a craving of the cultured soul which began
to