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 relating to this species. It comes from the
Philippines, and exacts a very hot, close atmosphere of course. Once
upon a time, however, a little piece was left in the cool house at
Holloway, and remained there some months unnoticed by the authorities.
When at length the oversight was remarked, to their amaze this stranger
from the tropics, abandoned in the temperate zone, proved to be thriving
more vigorously than any of his fellows who enjoyed their proper
climate!--so he was left in peace and cherished as a "phenomenon.
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