Of another class, but not less renowned in its way, was the sale of March 11th last year.  It had been heavily advertised.  A leading continental importer announced the discovery of a new Odontoglossum.  No less than six varieties of type were employed to call public attention to its merits, and this was really no extravagant allowance under the circumstances alleged.  It was a “grand new species,” destined to be a “gem in the finest collections,” a “favourite,” the “most attractive of plants.”  Its flowers were wholly “tinged with a most delicate mauve, the base of the segment and the lip of a most charming violet”—­in short, it was “the blue Odontoglossum” and well deserved the title coeleste.  And the whole stock of two hundred plants would be offered to British enthusiasm.  No wonder the crowd was thick at Messrs. Protheroe’s room on that March morning.  Few leading amateurs or growers who could not attend in person were unrepresented.  At the psychological moment, when eagerness had reached the highest pitch, an orchid was brought in and set before them.  Those experienced persons glanced at it and said, “Very nice, but haven’t you an Odontoglossum coeleste to show?” The unhappy agent protested that this was the divine thing.  No one would believe at first; the joke was too good—­to put it in that mild form.  When at length it became evident that this grand new species, heavenly gem, &c., was the charming but familiar Odontoglossum ramossissimum, such a tumult of laughter and indignation arose, that Messrs. Protheroe quashed the sale.  A few other instances of the kind might be given but none so grand.

The special interest of the sale to us lies in some novelties collected by Mr. Edward Wallace in parts unknown, and he is probably among us.  Mr. Wallace has no adventures in particular to relate this time, but he tells, with due caution, where and how his treasures were gathered in South America.  There is a land which those who have geographical knowledge sufficient may identify, surrounded by the territories of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil.  It is traversed by some few Indian tribes, and no collector hitherto had penetrated it.  Mr. Wallace followed the central line of mountains from Colombia for a hundred and fifty miles, passing a succession of rich valleys described as the loveliest ever seen by this veteran young traveller, such as would support myriads of cattle.  League beyond league stretches the “Pajadena grass,” pasturage unequalled; but “the wild herds that never knew a fold” are its only denizens.  Here, on the mountain slopes, Mr. Wallace found Bletia Sherrattiana, the white form, very rare; another terrestrial orchid, unnamed and, as is thought, unknown, which sends up a branching spike two feet to three feet high, bearing ten to twelve flowers, of rich purple hue, in shape like a Sobralia, three and four inches across; and yet another of the same family, growing on the rocks,