Orchids everywhere!
They hang in dense bunches from the roof. They lie a foot thick upon
every board, and two feet thick below. They are suspended on the walls.
Men pass incessantly along the gangways, carrying a load that would fill
a barrow. And all the while fresh stores are accumulating under the
hands of that little group in the middle, bent and busy at cases just
arrived. They belong to a lot of eighty that came in from Burmah last
night--and while we look on, a boy brings a telegram announcing fifty
more from Mexico, that will reach Waterloo at 2.30 p.m. Great is the
wrath and great the anxiety at this news, for some one has blundered;
the warning should have been despatched three hours before. Orchids must
not arrive at unknown stations unless there be somebody of discretion
and experience to meet them, and the next train does not leave St.
Albans until 2.44 p.m. Dreadful is the sense of responsibility, alarming
the suggestions of disaster, that arise from this incident.
The Burmese cases in hand just now are filled with Dendrobiums,
_crassinode_ and _Wardianum_, stowed in layers as close as possible,
with _D. Falconerii_ for packing material. A royal way of doing things
indeed to substitute an orchid of value for shavings or moss, but mighty
convenient and profitable. For that packing will be sent to the
auction-rooms presently, and will be sold for no small proportion of the
sum which its more delicate charge attains.
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