The morning call., 1890-07-08
AN ACRE OF ORCHIDS.
What Mr.. Sander Has Done in Ten Years
Aided by Money.

What Mr.. Sander Has Done in Ten Years
Aided by Money.
Year by year already the growth of or
chids is multiplying by leaps and bounds.
as every fower-show proves. At the CryS-
tai Palace last week, in an "open glass" of
cut flowers, the first-prize winner showed
eighteen orchids among twenty-four sprays
of bloom, and every competitor introduced
them more or less.
The vast establishment atSt Adams which
Mr.. Sander founded and directs is familiar
by name to botanists the whole world over.
Nowhere on earth is an acre of land put un :
der glass and devoted to orchids alone.
Foreigners and sight-seers within score of
miles OF London would see one house"
AGO feet long, 26 wide, Is high, piled up with
cattleyas, mostly in bloom. and ceilinged
with baskets overhead. They would see
10000 plants OF Odontoglossum Crispum in
flower at once, $4,000 sprays of OdontOglos-
sum NeXillarium all open. Twelve such
houses they would find side by side, each $50
feet long, and the narrowest 81 feet wide.
One of them is occupied all down the middle
with tank of Victoria Regia and other
tropical nymphea; but ABOUT this hang
thousands and thousands Of Dendr0bium
Dearei, with great bouquets of snowy flower.
Under every stage orchids are suspended,
head downward; imported masses these,
waiting IN the cool and damp until the busy
producers find time to deal with them.
There is an underground world also, where
classes arriving from east and west and
south-yery nearly all the tropical and sub
tropical countries of the gobe-are I'M
packed and sorted. Here also the printing
OF the "Reichenbachia" is carried on
those gorgeous annals of orchidOlOgy for
which gold medal was awarded at the In
for lana IprtI yE,fl in
Berlin last month.
Mr.. Sanders establishment is not yet ten
years old. Its owner is a self-made man in
the Strictest sense of that expression. \
native Of Prussia, he came to England in
1867, merely with view to learn the Ian
guage, and found employment with MesSrs.
Carter OF FOresthill. There he made an ac-
quainlaGce which decided his career. RoeZe
we would not VuigarlZe such man with
the stupid " Mr."-took fancy to him. 1t
is necessary to explain to the public that
ROeZe was the greatest collector Of plants
that ever lived, whose services to botany
are priceless. His agent at that time was
Mr.. Orgies of Zurich, for the Continental
interest in new plants was greater at that
time than ours. English enthusiasm grows
fast, however, and RoeZe appointed his
young friend sub-agent in this country.
Two other collectors, of fans only surpassed
by his, MeSSrs. Wallis and Eudres, followed
the example. Mr.. Sander then took small
premises IN George street, st. Adams,
which are now a Succursdle of the vast
emporium. There was no thought of grow
ing orchids. The collectors sent their
spoils from one country or another, and the
agent sold them as best he could. The
coup which first brought him into general
notice was an importation of 10000 Next
can orchids sent by Roezc, which filled the
little house from cellar to roof. That is
still legend OF the trade" for no such
wholesale plumber can be found now in
world which has been swept by armies Of
collectors. Then R0eze retired, after forty
years wandering in the tropics. EudreS
died at Santa Marta, and Wallis very soon
after at Guayaquil Are not their names
chronicled among the martyrs of orchid
ology? Wallis was a Protestant and the
priests refused him burial; medical stu
dents came in the night and carried off his
body.
MIR. Sander, however, foreseeing that
these veterans must leave him soon, had
begun to train younger generation with
RoeZe's advice. 1t was his supreme good
fortune, if we should not say his merit, to
attract the interest of Mr.. Nathaniel
R0thschild. and all that powerful family
became his patrons. Such, in bareSt out
line, is the career OF the orchid king.-St
James Gazette.