ted in
Mr. Sander's service. It is clear, indeed, that the orchid-farmer of the
future, in whose success I firmly believe, will be wise to begin
modestly, cultivating the species he finds in his neighbourhood. It is
not in our greenhouses alone that these plants sometimes show likes and
dislikes beyond explanation. For example, many gentlemen in Costa
Rica--a wealthy land, and comparatively civilized--have tried to
cultivate the glorious _Cattleya Dowiana_. For business purposes also
the attempt has been made. But never with success. In those tropical
lands a variation of climate or circumstances, small perhaps, but such
as plants that subsist mostly upon air can recognize, will be found in a
very narrow circuit. We say that Trichopilias have their home at Bogota.
As a matter of fact, however, they will not live in the immediate
vicinity of that town, though the woods, fifteen miles away, are stocked
with them. The orchid-farmer will have to begin cautiously, propagating
what he finds at hand, and he must not be hasty in sending his crop to
market. It is a general rule of experience that plants brought from the
forest and "established" before shipment do less well than those shipped
direct in good condition, though the public, naturally, is slow to admit
a conclusion opposed by _a priori_ reasoning. The cause may be that they
exhaust their strength in that first effort, and suffer more severely on
the voyage.

I hear of one gentleman, however, who appears to be cultivating orchids
with success. This is Mr. Rand, dwelling on the Rio Negro, in Brazil,
where he has established a plantation of _Hevia Brazilienses_, a new
caoutchouc of the highest quality, indigenous to those parts. Some years
ago Mr. Rand wrote to Mr. Godseff, at St. Albans, begging plants of
_Vanda Sanderiana_ and other Oriental species, which were duly
forwarded. In return he despatched some pieces of a new Epidendrum,
named in his honour _E. Randii_, a noble flower, with brown sepals and
petals, the lip crimson, betwixt two large white wings. This and others
native to the Rio Negro Mr. Rand is propagating on a large scale in
shreds of bamboo, especially a white _Cattleya superba_ which he himself
discovered. It is pleasing to add that by latest reports all the
Oriental species were thriving to perfection on the other side of the
Atlantic.

Vandas, indeed, should flourish where _Cattleya superba_ is at home, or
anything else that loves the atmosphere of