" Giants dwelt in our greenhouses then.
So the want of enthusiasts was satisfied. In 1852 Mr. B.S. Williams
could venture to publish "Orchids for the Million," a hand-book of
world-wide fame under the title it presently assumed, "The Orchid
Grower's Manual." An occupation or amusement the interest of which grows
year by year had been discovered. All who took trouble to examine found
proof visible that these masterworks of Nature could be transplanted and
could be made to flourish in our dull climate with a regularity and a
certainty unknown to them at home. The difficulties of their culture
were found to be a myth--we speak generally, and this point must be
mentioned again. The "Million" did not yet heed Mr. Williams'
invitation, but the Ten Thousand did, heartily.
I take it that orchids meet a craving of the cultured soul which began
to be felt at the moment when kindly powers provided means to satisfy
it. People of taste, unless I err, are tiring of those conventional
forms in which beauty has been presented in all past generations. It may
be an unhealthy sentiment, it may be absurd, but my experience is that
it exists and must be taken into account. A picture, a statue, a piece
of china, any work of art, is eternally the same, however charming. The
most one can do is to set it in different positions, different lights.
Theophile Gautier declared in a moment of frank impatience that if the
Transfiguration hung in his study, he would assuredly find blemishes
therein after awhile--quite fanciful and baseless, as he knew, but such,
nevertheless, as would drive him to distraction presently.
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