The illustrations are reduced from those delightful
drawings by Mr. Moon admired throughout the world
in the pages of “Reichenbachia.” The
licence to use them is one of many favours for which
I am indebted to the proprietors of that stately work.
I do not give detailed instructions for culture.
No one could be more firmly convinced that a treatise
on that subject is needed, for no one assuredly has
learned, by more varied and disastrous experience,
to see the omissions of the text-books. They
are written for the initiated, though designed for
the amateur. Naturally it is so. A man who
has been brought up to business can hardly resume
the utter ignorance of the neophyte. Unconsciously
he will take a certain degree of knowledge for granted,
and he will neglect to enforce those elementary principles
which are most important of all. Nor is the writer
of a gardening book accustomed, as a rule, to marshal
his facts in due order, to keep proportion, to assure
himself that his directions will be exactly understood
by those who know nothing.
The brief hints in “Reichenbachia” are
admirable, but one does not cheerfully refer to an
authority in folio. Messrs. Veitch’s “Manual
of Orchidaceous Plants” is a model of lucidity
and a mine of information. Repeated editions
of Messrs. B.S. Williams’ “Orchid
Growers’ Manual” have proved its merit,
and, upon the whole, I have no hesitation in declaring
that this is the most useful work which has come under
my notice. But they are all adapted for those
who have passed the elementary stage.
Thus, if I have introduced few remarks on culture,
it is not because I think them needless. The
reason may be frankly confessed. I am not sure
that my time would be duly paid. If this little
book should reach a second edition, I will resume
once more the ignorance that was mine eight years
ago, and as a fellow-novice tell the unskilled amateur
how to grow orchids.
FrederickBoyle.
North Lodge, Addiscombe, 1893.
ABOUT ORCHIDS.
MY GARDENING.
I.
The contents of my Bungalow gave material for some
“Legends” which perhaps are not yet universally
forgotten. I have added few curiosities to the
list since that work was published. My days of
travel seem to be over; but in quitting that happiest
way of life—not willingly—I have
had the luck to find another occupation not less interesting,
and better suited to grey hairs and stiffened limbs.
This volume deals with the appurtenances of my Bungalow,
as one may say—the orchid-houses. But
a man who has almost forgotten what little knowledge
he gathered in youth about English plants does not
readily turn to that higher branch of horticulture.
More ignorant even than others, he will cherish all
the superstitions and illusions which environ the
orchid family. Enlightenment is a slow process,
and he will make many experiences before perceiving
his true bent. How I came to grow orchids will
be told in this first article.
