[Illustration: VANDA SANDERIANA Reduced to One Sixth.]

ABOUT ORCHIDS

_A CHAT_

BY

FREDERICK BOYLE

_WITH COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS_

LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, LTD. 1893

[_All rights reserved_]

LONDON: PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED, ST. JOHN'S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL, E.C.

I INSCRIBE THIS BOOK TO MY GUIDE, COMFORTER AND FRIEND, JOSEPH GODSEFF.

CONTENTS.

PAGE MY GARDENING 1

AN ORCHID SALE 24

ORCHIDS 42

COOL ORCHIDS 60

WARM ORCHIDS 103

HOT ORCHIDS 138

THE LOST ORCHID 173

AN ORCHID FARM 183

ORCHIDS AND HYBRIDIZING 210

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE VANDA SANDERIANA _Frontispiece_

ODONTOGLOSSUM CRISPUM ALEXANDRAE 67

ONCIDIUM MACRANTHUM 88

DENDROBIUM BRYMERIANUM 127

COELOGENE PANDURATA 160

CATTLEYA LABIATA 173

LOELIA ANCEPS SCHROEDERIANA 197

CYPRIPEDIUM (HYBRIDUM) POLLETTIANUM 210

PREFACE.

The purport of this book is shown in the letter following which I addressed to the editor of the _Daily News_ some months ago:--

"I thank you for reminding your readers, by reference to my humble work, that the delight of growing orchids can be enjoyed by persons of very modest fortune. To spread that knowledge is my contribution to philanthropy, and I make bold to say that it ranks as high as some which are commended from pulpits and platforms. For your leader-writer is inexact, though complimentary, in assuming that any 'special genius' enables me to cultivate orchids without more expense than other greenhouse plants entail, or even without a gardener. I am happy to know that scores of worthy gentlemen--ladies too--not more gifted than their neighbours in any sense, find no greater difficulty. If the pleasure of one of these be due to any writings of mine, I have wrought some good in my generation."

With the same hope I have collected those writings, dispersed and buried more or less in periodicals. The articles in this volume are collected--with permission which I gratefully acknowledge--from _The Standard_, _Saturday Review_, _St. James's Gazette_, _National Review_, and _Longman's Magazine_. With some pride I discover, on reading them again, that hardly a statement needs correction, for they contain many statements, and some were published years ago. But in this, as in other lore, a student still gathers facts. The essays have been brought up to date by additions--in especial that upon "Hybridizing," a theme which has not interested the great public hitherto, simply because the great public knows nothing about it. There is not, in fact, so far as I am aware, any general record of the amazing and delightful achievements which have been made therein of late years. It does not fall within my province to frame such a record. But at least any person who reads this unscientific account, not daunted by the title, will understand the fascination of the study.

Table of contents (by pages)

• 1: About Orchids by Frederick Boyle
• 2: The brief hints in Reichenbachia are admirable
• 3: First I dug up the fine Cupressus
• 4: Covering it over with the charming saxifrage
• 5: I find Anomatheca cruenta hardy in my sheltered garden
• 6: But my established Aponogeton do somehow
• 7: I seized that precious Cattleya
• 8: You sold me a Cattleya Mossiae the other day
• 9: Then I felt the joys of orchid culture
• 10: A resident in the German colony at Tovar
• 11: And poor Micholitz escaped with bare life
• 12: Ericksson would have withdrawn
• 13: Does anybody want any crispums
• 14: Oncidium luridum follows the Odontoglots
• 15: Have a striking instance in the case of orchids
• 16: For such men orchids are a blessed relief
• 17: Probably I shall sever the bulbs without disturbing them
• 18: Here is a Cattleya which I purchased last autumn
• 19: But the Phaloenopsis is not among them
• 20: But it numbers twenty five species
• 21: Most Odontoglossums last above four weeks
• 22: Bleu and Moreau have both flowered seedling Odontoglots
• 23: The fascinating study of hybridization among orchids
• 24: Crispum Alexandrae is the queen of this genus
• 25: Harryanum was found after his death
• 26: Lycaste also is a genus peculiar to America
• 27: Lycastes are found in the woods
• 28: Forstermann was alert that morning
• 29: To find Masdevallia Veitchii so long
• 30: Serratum has a much larger bloom
• 31: Osmers who got soon better and I
• 32: Arrived at the Curubing mountains
• 33: If you want to get any Lawrenceana
• 34: To morrow I expect other peons
• 35: But simultaneously poor Klaboch himself succumbed
• 36: The Frontino vexillarium grows cooler
• 37: Trian well deserved immortality
• 38: When the beautiful Oncidium Jonesianum appeared
• 39: Mendellii is as safe to import as any other species
• 40: Loelia purpurata falls under the head of hot orchids
• 41: Schomburgkias are not often seen
• 42: Illustration DENDROBIUM BRYMERIANUM
• 43: Humblotii is a marvel of beauty rose pink
• 44: Scottianum comes from Zanzibar
• 45: They would drain the cup without touching the pollinia
• 46: Peristeria abounded in that steaming swamp
• 47: The favoured home of Vandas is Java
• 48: Both the species of Renanthera need great heat
• 49: Kerbach found it did not answer
• 50: Leopoldi inextricably entwined
• 51: Many persons regard Phaloenopsis as the loveliest of all
• 52: Illustration COELOGENE PANDURATA
• 53: Forstermann only secured three
• 54: Lanceanum flourished with a vigour almost embarrassing
• 55: Bulbophyllums rank among the marvels of nature
• 56: The Grammatophyllums were regarded as monsters incomparable
• 57: Illustration CATTLEYA LABIATA
• 58: Baron Alphonse and Baron Adolf de Rothschild
• 59: Moreau is an enthusiast in orchidology also
• 60: It is ceilinged with baskets of Mexican orchid
• 61: Falconerii for packing material
• 62: Crispum alone at ten thousand
• 63: Here are stored the huge specimens of Cymbidium Lowianum
• 64: As is the Vriesia of other species
• 65: As Eucharis Mastersii and Eucharis Sanderiana
• 66: The church was hung with garlands of it
• 67: But facing us as we enter stands a Lycaste Skinneri
• 68: The next house is filled with Odontoglossums
• 69: But several from alliance with Calanthe
• 70: Giving Loelio Cattleya Pallas
• 71: Zygopetalum Mackayi has been crossed by Mr
• 72: Seden has made two crosses of Chysis
• 73: Purpuratum is almost extinct at Hong Kong
• 74: Doubtless Cypripeds rarely fertilize by comparison
• 75: Heterocarpum of Ceylon has a long
• 76: Vexillarium superbum lives between
• 77: Purpurata x Cattleya Dowiana
• 78: So the charming Masdevallia Tovarensis
• 79: This house is devoted to the hybridizing of Cypripediums
• 80: Until those experts could identify a healthy young Catasetum
• 81: Who is entitled to a large proportion
• 82: 147 Roraima Mountain 77