all his disappointments, perhaps. The very great majority of
orchids, such as I refer to, have their home in the tropics; even
the "cool" Odontoglots and Masdevallias owe that quality to their
mountaineering habit, not to latitude. They live so near the equator
that sunshine descends almost perpendicularly--and the sun shines
for more than half the year. But in this happy isle of ours, upon
the very brightest day of midsummer, its rays fall at an angle of
28 deg., declining constantly until, at midwinter, they struggle through
the fogs at an inclination of 75 deg.. The reader may work out this
proportion for himself, but he must add to his reckoning the
thickness of our atmosphere at its best, and the awful number of
cloudy days. We cannot spare one particle of light. The ripening
seed must stand close beneath the glass, and however fierce the
sunshine no blind may be interposed. It is likely that the
mother-plant will be burnt up--quite certain that it will be much
injured.

This house is devoted to the hybridizing of Cypripediums; I choose that
genus for our demonstration, because, as has been said, it is so very
easy and so certain that an intelligent girl mastered all its
eccentricities of structure after a single lesson, which made her
equally proficient in those of Dendrobes, Oncidiums, Odontoglots,
Epidendrums, and I know not how many more. The leaves are green and
smooth as yet, with many a fantastic bloom, and many an ovary that has
just begun to swell, rising amidst the verdure. Each flower spike which
has been crossed carries its neat label, registering the father's name
and the date of union.

Mr. Maynard takes the two first virgin blooms to hand: _Cypripedium
Sanderianum_, and _Cypripedium Godefroyae_, as it chances. Let us cut off
the lip in order to see more clearly. Looking down now upon the flower,
we mark two wings, the petals, which stood on either side of the
vanished lip. From the junction of these wings issues a round stalk,
about one quarter of an inch long, and slightly hairy, called the
"column." It widens out at the tip, forming a pretty table, rather more
than one-third of an inch long and wide. This table serves no purpose in
our inquiry; it obstructs the view, and we will remove it; but the
reader understands, of course, that these amputations cannot be
performed when business is intended. Now--the table snipped off--we see