Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-22

legs of the Amazon and the Rio de la Plata,
Philippine Businesses, jungles of Borneo
and Siam, and the Businesses of Madagas-
car are rich in new and beautiful forms.
Africa is likewise happy hunting ground.
The hunters, strong and adventurous fell
lows of many nationalities, sometimes go
out at venture their own account, but
often agents for the great commercial
orchid houses. 1t takes money no less than
courage and address to organize q proper
native expedition and keep it well in hand
through three or six months in the very
widest wilds. And it takes something OF
skill as well, for after the orchids are
found they must be detached and packed
with care, so that they will come through
the journey in at least fair condition. Many
of the choicer sorts have been brought
thousand miles on the heads of men, or
slung across half wild buIlocks coming
thus out Of trackleSs interior to the great
highways of the ocean.
No matter how plenty orchids may be-
come they will always be costly, say the
florists 1t is in the nature of things. The
care of them is expensive and the return
uncertain. Each sort must have tenn
perature and degree Of moisture recalling
its native seat. Thus in adjoining houses
at great establishment there is often a
difference of twenty degrees. Proper look
ing after such very kittle floral cattle
quires something more than skilled labor.
1t demands a knowledge and patience al
most approaching genius. The orchid ten
der must be endowed with a special sixth
sense to discern the whims and vagaries
of his uncanny charges.
American Beauties Always Favored.
The most wondrous thing about Ameri-
can Beauties is their persistence. 1t is now
quite thirty years since a firm of Washing
ton florists introduced under that name a
French rose called by the name of its
originator, Nine. Ferdinand Jamain. 1t
astonished everybody, its sponsors included,
by taking instant hold of fashions tickle
fancy. The hold is as firm as ever not
withstanding every successive season has
seen at least one new rose heralded as the
Beauty's successor upon the throne. All
these new roses have done well. One finds
them upon the florists counters and in the
street stalls. Good flowers and true, they
have added largely to the delights of life,
but they have not dethroned the lusty long
legged Beauty: Nor, say the florists, are
they likely to do it,
The vogue of the violet wakes rather
than wanes. So does the prize. This is
due partly to fashion and more tS the dep
relations of certain creeping and crawling
pests which make of violet growing a crit
ical business One had better say they help
to make it parlous. Any way one looks at
1t the odds are against success, unless the
grower has the wisdom of Solomon and
something more than lie patience Of Job.
Wherefore, among those who know, the
fairy. tales Of reduced gentlewomen all at
once retrieving fortune and achieving indie
penQeHCG ny Help OI lISlF NlOloC DeQS arouse
an impolite Incredibly There are success
full women violet growers, but they had to
learn the business, else command the
services of somebody who knew it.
The Violet's Vagaries.
Violets in the bed are tender, finicky, sub
ject to many fungus Diseases and suscepti-
Bile to infinite harm by a degree too much
or too little of heat. 1t is the same way
with water; they must have enough, but
too much is fatal. The soil, also, must be
to their liking and the exposure whatever
pIeases their whimsical minds. They show
strong idiosyncrasies They refuse to
bloom or even to live, sometimes under APP
parently ideal conditions, yet, a half mile
away. thrive in the face of adverse sur
roundings. It almost seems that they re-
sent the touch Of some hands. and are