Identifier: aboutorchidschat00boyl (find matches)
Title: About orchids; a chat
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Boyle, Frederick, b. 1841
Subjects:
Publisher: London, Chapman and Hall
Contributing Library: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden
Digitizing Sponsor: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden

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gh, general way ofspeaking, they have a white ground. Masdevalliasgive us scarlet and orange and purple ; Lycastes,green and dull yellow; Sophronitis, crimson;Mesospinidium^ rose, and so forth. Blue must notbe looked for. Even counting the new Utriculariafor an orchid, as most people do, there are, I think,but five species that will live among us at present,in all the prodigious family, showing this colour ;and every one of them is very hot. Thusit appears that the Oncidium fills a gap—andhow gloriously! There is no such pure goldin the scheme of the universe as it displaysunder fifty shapes wondrously varied. Thus—Ojicidhun macranthum! one is continually temptedto exclaim, as one or other glory of the orchidworld recurs to mind, that it is the supremetriumph of floral beauty. I have sinned thus, andI know it. Therefore, let the reader seek anopportunity to behold 0. macranthum^ and judgefor himself. But it seems to me that Nature givesus a hint. As though proudly conscious what a
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Oncidium macranthum. COOL ORCHIDS. 89 marvel it will unfold, this superb flower often de-mands nine months to perfect itself. Dr. Wallacetold me of an instance in his collection whereeighteen months elapsed from the appearance ofthe spike until the opening of the first bloom.But it lasts a time proportionate. Nature forestalled the dreams of aesthetic colour-ists when she designed Oncidium viacrantJium.Thus, and not otherwise, would the thoughtful ofthem arrange a harmony in gold and bronze;but Nature^ with characteristic indifference to thefancies of mankind, hid her cJief-dccuvrc in thewilds of Ecuador. Hardly less striking, however,though perhaps less beautiful, are its sisters of the** small-lipped species—One. serratum, 0. supcr-lu€7is, and 0. sculptiim. This last is rarely seen.As with others of its class, the spike grows verylong, twelve feet perhaps, if it were allowed tostretch. The flowers are small comparatively,clear bronze-brown, highly polished, so closely anddaintil

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