Of all the groups of plants introduced to the rest of the world from the southerly countries of the New World, orchids easily rank first, as the most precious, the most varied and beautiful, and the most costly: the first brought to England came from the East and West Indies. _Epidendrum cochleatum_ found its way from Jamaica to England and was flowered for the first time in 1787; another species of the same lovely family, _Epidendrum fragrans_, came also from Jamaica in 1778 but was not flowered until 1788. In 1794 fifteen species of epiphytal orchids were at Kew, chiefly brought from the West Indies by Admiral Bligh, and for many years these islands, and India, were the main sources of orchid importation. But in 1793 a species of Oncidium was introduced to England from Panama: in 1811 another came from Montevideo, and by 1818 Brazil had begun to contribute species of the same genus. In 1825 Loddiges of Hackney, London, had in cultivation some eighty-four species of orchids from South America and the East, and by 1830 the Royal Horticultural Society of London had collectors in various parts of Brazil, hunting for rare plants. Many beautiful orchids were sent home by business men residing in South America; for instance, William Cattley of Barnet, who died in 1832, and whose name is commemorated by the noble Cattleya, established an extensive correspondence with business men living abroad for the purposes of obtaining new and rare orchids, and through his efforts came many fine specimens, chiefly from Brazil. The earliest Brazilian _Cattleya_ to reach Europe was C. Loddigesii, 1815, but the most famous and most protean species of all _C. Cabiata_, reached Europe in 1818, and others of the same genus came in rapid succession from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Argentine. Many beautiful Brazilian orchids were sent by William Harrison, a merchant living in Rio de Janeiro during the thirties and forties of last century, to his brother Richard in Liverpool, whose residence at Aigburth was in those days a Mecca to which orchid lovers paid annual pilgrimages. To introduce these plants was one thing; to cultivate them successfully was quite another. Hooker once declared that for more than half a century England was “the grave of tropical orchids” and that those surviving did so in spite of, rather than on account of, the treatment they received. Each grower had his special system, mostly wrong: it was not until after repeated and costly failures that orchid importing and growing became a success, and that success only became general about 1850.