This work is not of the class which needs a Preface. But to the Editors of the Pall Mall Gazette, Sunday Times, Black and White, Chambers’s Journal, Wide Wide World, and Badminton Magazine I am indebted for license to republish my stories of Orchid-seeking, and it is pleasant to acknowledge their courtesy. If those tales amuse the general reader, I trust that other portions of the work will be found not uninteresting, nor even unprofitable, by orchid-growers. Plain descriptions of scarce species and varieties are not readily accessible. A mere list of the hybrids in the Woodlands collection would be found useful, pending the issue of that international catalogue which must be undertaken shortly; but beyond this I have noted the peculiarities of colour and form in such of the progeny as seemed most curious. No doubt many experts will wish that I had described some which are passed over and omitted some described—without agreeing among themselves in either case perhaps. But I have done my best.
| | | PAGE |
| How the Collection Was Formed | | [1] |
| The Cattleya House | | [7] |
| A Legend of Roezl | | [17] |
| The Cattleya House—Continued | | [25] |
| A Story of Cattleya Bowringiana | | [37] |
| A Story of Cattleya Mossiae | | [45] |
| Cypripedium insigne | | [53] |
| Story of Cattleya Skinneri alba | | [59] |
| The Phalaenopsis House | | [67] |
| Story of Vanda Sanderiana | | [71] |
| Story of Phalaenopsis Sanderiana | | [79] |
| Hybrid Cattleyas and Laelias | | [87] |
| A Legend of Madagascar | | [99] |
| Laelia purpurata | | [107] |
| Story Of Dendrobium Schröderianum | | [113] |
| Story of Dendrobium Lowii | | [121] |
| Calanthe House | | [129] |
| Story of Coelogyne speciosa | | [135] |
| Cattleya Labiata House | | [143] |
| A Story of Brassavola Digbyana | | [151] |
| Lycastes, Sobralias, and Anguloas | | [159] |
| Story of Sobralia Kienastiana | | [163] |
| The Cypripedium House | | [171] |
| Story of Cypripedium Curtisii | | [183] |
| Cypripediums—Continued | | [191] |
| Story of Cypripedium platytaenium | | [205] |
| Story of Cypripedium Spicerianum | | [213] |
| The Cool House | | [221] |
| Story of Odontoglossum Harryanum | | [229] |
| Masdevallias | | [237] |
| Oncidiums | | [239] |
| Story of Oncidium splendidum | | [241] |
| Laelia Jongheana | | [249] |
| Story of Bulbophyllum Barbigerum | | [253] |
| Index | | [261] |