More like a Vanda than anything else, the authorities resolve,
but not a Vanda! Commending it to the special care of those responsible,
we pass on.
Here is the largest mass of Catasetum ever found, or even rumoured,
lying in ponderous bulk upon the stage, much as it lay in a Guatemalan
forest. It is engaged in the process of "plumping up." Orchids shrivel
in their long journey, and it is the importer's first care to renew that
smooth and wholesome rotundity which indicates a conscience untroubled,
a good digestion, and an assurance of capacity to fulfil any reasonable
demand. Beneath the staging you may see myriads of withered sticks,
clumps of shrunken and furrowed bulbs by the thousand, hung above those
leaf-beds mentioned; they are "plumping" in the damp shade. The larger
pile of Catasetum--there are two--may be four feet long, three wide, and
eighteen inches thick; how many hundreds of flowers it will bear passes
computation. I remarked that when broken up into handsome pots it would
fill a greenhouse of respectable dimensions; but it appears that there
is not the least intention of dividing it. The farmer has several
clients who will snap at this natural curiosity, when, in due time, it
is put on the market.
At the far end of the house stands another piece of rockwork, another
little cascade, and more marvels than I can touch upon. In fact, there
are several which would demand all the space at my disposition, but,
happily, one reigns supreme.
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