Morning journal and courier., 1881-10-08
MarVe1s of Orchids.
Collections of these Curious Plants Owned in New York and it's Vieinity-Where They are Obtained, and Descriptions eff Rare and Beautiful Specimens.

Collections Of these Curious Plants Owned
 in New York and it's Vicinity-Where
 They are Obtained, and Descriptions ef
 Rare and Beautiful Specimens.
 From the New York Maill
 The orchid fever which has existed so long among floral amateurs in England, IS rapidly spreading on this side of the water among the few who have the time and the money to gratify their taste for the unique in the collection of these seeming freaks of nature.
 There are now at least three fine collec- tions owned in New York city and it's neigh borhood, which are worth thousands of dol lars and are the result of twenty years careful research and study. Besides these, there are many smaller collections, and nearly every florist or private conservatory has a few specimens Mr. Hovey, the vet eran horticulturist of Boston, has also a great variety of these plants, and several fine collections are owned in and around that city.
 A well known florist of that city has at his greenhouses in Astoria probably the finest as sortment, with one exception, in the United States A recent examination of this collec- ton revealed a world of wonders to the writ CT. Two ample houses are devoted almost entirely to orchids, and there are enough out of doors just now to almost fill another house. Probably there are 5000 plants in all, or 300 or 400 different varieties.
 Here are to be seen members of the great orchid family from all parts of the world, in all the grotesque forms imaginable. A great peculiarity of most of the tropical orchids is that they draw their sustenance almost en- tirely from the air They are wired or tack ed upon pieces of half -decayed wood, or up on baked clay tiles, with only the addition in some cases of little damp florists moss. the whole being suspended by a wire. Some plants have grown to be much larger than the substance to which they are attached :; some are so small as to be hardly percepti- ble. The vagaries of form in which the plants and their bulbs indulge are simply in- describable. Some appear to be growing wrong end up with the roots at what Is ap- parently the top of the plant; some have at tached themselves so completely to their hanging homes by means of long clinging roots as to be inseparable from 1t some grow in earth like any respectable and con- ventional plant, though they are far from al lowing their roots to grow in the regular manner; some are patriarchs of twenty or thirty years others remain in 8 sort of dried embryo state upon the curious looking sticks upon which they are imported.
 The Phillipine Island and Indian orchids come to the florists dry and fastened to the rough limbs of trees, the roots being gath cred together and wound around with cocoa nut fibre, or 8 peculiar coarse hair. Twenty to fifty distinct plants are grouped together upon one stick Others are wired upon pieces of wood or in a rude framework. The vanilla bean plant, almost the only orchid of commercial value, drapes the walls and roof of the house with it's fantastic waxen leaves