Moreau is an enthusiast in orchidology also. He had no object in keeping
the secret of its habitat, and when Mr. Sander, chancing to call,
recognized the treasure so long lost, he gave every assistance.
Meanwhile, the International Horticultural Society of Brussels had
secured a quantity, but they regarded it as new, and gave it the name of
_Catt. Warocqueana_; in which error they persisted until Messrs. Sander
flooded the market.
AN ORCHID FARM.
My articles brought upon me a flood of questions almost as embarrassing
as flattering to a busy journalist. The burden of them was curiously
like. Three ladies or gentlemen in four wrote thus: "I love orchids. I
had not the least suspicion that they may be cultivated so easily and so
cheaply. I am going to begin. Will you please inform me"--here diversity
set in with a vengeance! From temperature to flower-pots, from the
selection of species to the selection of peat, from the architecture of
a greenhouse to the capabilities of window-gardening, with excursions
between, my advice was solicited. I replied as best I could. It must be
feared, however, that the most careful questioning and the most
elaborate replies by post will not furnish that ground-work of
knowledge, the ABC of the science, which is needed by a person utterly
unskilled; nor will he find it readily in the hand-books. Written by men
familiar with the alphabet of orchidology from their youth up, though
they seem to begin at the beginning, ignorant enthusiasts who study them
find woeful gaps.
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