ing water. Many orchids
of the largest size are planted out here--Cypripedium, Cattleya,
Sobralia, Phajus, Loelia, Zygopetalum, and a hundred more,
"specimens," as the phrase runs--that is to say, they have ten, twenty,
fifty, flower spikes. I attempt no more descriptions; to one who knows,
the plain statement of fact is enough, one who does not is unable to
conceive that sight by the aid of words. But the Sobralias demand
attention. They stand here in clumps two feet thick, bearing a
wilderness of loveliest bloom--like Irises magnified and glorified by
heavenly enchantment. Nature designed a practical joke perhaps when she
granted these noble flowers but one day's existence each, while dingy
Epidendrums last six months, or nine. I imagine that for stateliness
and delicacy combined there are no plants that excel the Sobralia. At
any single point they may be surpassed--among orchids, be it understood,
by nothing else in Nature's realm--but their magnificence and grace
together cannot be outshone.

I must not dwell upon the marvels here, in front, on either side, and
above--a hint is enough. There are baskets of _Loelia anceps_ three
feet across, lifted bodily from the tree in their native forest where
they had grown perhaps for centuries. One of them--the white variety,
too, which aesthetic infidels might adore, though they believed in
nothing--opened a hundred spikes at Christmas time; we do not concern
ourselves with minute reckonings here. But an enthusiastic novice
counted the flowers blooming one day on that huge mass of _Loelia
albida_ yonder, and they numbered two hundred and eleven--unless, as
some say, this was the quantity of "spikes," in which case one must have
to multiply by two or three. Such incidents maybe taken for granted at
the farm.

[Illustration: LOELIANCEPS SCHROEDERIANA.
Reduced to One Sixth]

But we must not pass a new orchid, quite distinct and supremely
beautiful, for which Professor Reichenbach has not yet found a name
sufficiently appreciative. Only eight pieces were discovered, whence we
must suspect that it is very rare at home; I do not know where the
home is, and I should not tell if I did. Such information is more
valuable than the surest tip for the Derby, or most secrets of State.
This new orchid is a Cyrrhopetalun, of very small size, but, like so
many others, its flower is bigger than itself. The spike inclines almost
at a right angle, and the pendent half is hung with golden bel