d with
lilac in the throat.

Phaloenopsis, of course, are hot. This is one of our oldest genera which
still rank in the first class. It was drawn and described so early as
1750, and a plant reached Messrs. Rollisson in 1838; they sold it to the
Duke of Devonshire for a hundred guineas. Many persons regard
Phaloenopsis as the loveliest of all, and there is no question of their
supreme beauty, though not everyone may rank them first. They come
mostly from the Philippines, but Java, Borneo, Cochin China, Burmah,
even Assam contribute some species. Colonel Berkeley found _Ph.
tetraspis_, snow-white, and _Ph. speciosa_, purple, in the Andamans,
when he was Governor of that settlement, clinging to low bushes along
the mangrove creeks. So far as I know, all the species dwell within
breath of the sea, as it may be put, where the atmosphere is laden with
salt; this gives a hint to the thoughtful. Mr. Partington, of Cheshunt,
who was the most renowned cultivator of the genus in his time, used to
lay down salt upon the paths and beneath the stages of his Phaloenopsis
house. Lady Howard de Walden stands first, perhaps, at the present day,
and her gardener follows the same system. These plants, indeed, are
affected, for good or ill, by influences too subtle for our perception
as yet. Experiment alone will decide whether a certain house, or a
certain neighbourhood even, is agreeable to their taste. It is a waste
of money in general to make alterations; if they do not like the place
they won't live there, and that's flat! It is probable that Maidstone,
where Lady Howard de Walden resides, may be specially suited to their
needs, but her ladyship's gardener knows how to turn a lucky chance to
the best account. Some of his plants have ten leaves!--the uninitiated
may think that fact grotesquely undeserving of a note of exclamation,
but to explain would be too technical. It may be observed that the
famous Swan orchid, _Cycnoches chlorochilon_, flourishes at Maidstone as
nowhere else perhaps in England.

Phaloenopsis were first introduced by Messrs. Rollisson, of Tooting, a
firm that vanished years ago, but will live in the annals of
horticulture as the earliest of the great importers. In 1836 they got
home a living specimen of _Ph. amabilis_, which had been described, and
even figured, eighty years before. A few months later the Duke of
Devonshire secured _Ph. Schilleriana_. The late Mr. B.S. Williams told
me a very curious incident rel