ORCHIDS THAT COST A FORTUNE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10608, 10 November 1910, Page 1

ORCHIDS THAT COST A FORTUNE.

Orchid collectors, who thronged the Gheapside auction rooms of Messrs Protheron and Morris, saw the greatest variety of rare plants that any one man has ever owned. . • The sale comprised the first portion of the Lytham Hall collection of orchids which -Has formed by Mr J. Talbot Clifton, who spent a fortune on his "hobby. ■ Even the most enthusiastic collector has never secured all the 5050 different varieties, but Mr Clifton collected 250P of them in the record time of three years. i The romance of orchid collecting, with its uild adventures in little-known lands, and the ever-present chance of buying a fortune in a flower-pot for a few. shillings, gave interest to the auction. No record or startling price—such as the .£1207 paid not long ago by Mr Sanders, .of- St. Albans, "the Orchid/ King," for a choice Odojitoglossum crispum pittianum —were obtained,' but there was eager competition among collectors for many of the bulbs. Orchids'are .'not fetching such. -high figures now as they did during the "Odonto" boom, bui- prices that would surprise -the. uninitiated were" paid fOl some- of the lots. - - >j

rwenty>or thirty guineas was an ordi- ' iar,y bid,\ and a pot of«Cattlcya "Warncri ilba-realised 42 .guineas. , T?he orchids tq the ordinary 'eye~wero i s.pSiiew.h'at_ uninteresting, for they were; ! riot for the "most part in' flower,- and. long jgreen ileaves and the projecting ' dark; brown bulbs were all that could be seen for; .'the, money. ~" * ' , - L.tter'th'ey will 'bloom in 'all the colors I of 'the rainbow- and recall the splendour of the jungles of New Guinea, Borneo,, and Java, in many carcfulbguarded hothouses. ,- nanc nym rdece v,aiiJ ylluavf \va