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Show Some Bar Orchid. The greatest known amateur of orchids in England is the Duke of Marlborough. He has sold his paintings, tapestries and race horses, but has kept his conservatories. conservato-ries. His collection of orchids at Blenheim Blen-heim is worth 30,000 a sum exceeding, according to experts, the value of the finest French collection at Ferriere. Wonderful are the orchid houses at Blenheim. There are three, each 330 yards square, always kept humid by means of steam, a condition essential to tropical orchids; dry heat is death to them. The Duke of Marlborough has orchid hunters iu almost every country where they are indigenousMexico, In- dia and Ceylon especially. The natives, who at first ridiculed the foreign orchid hunters, have now learned the secret of their incomprehensible value, and will only guide them to the spots where they grow when paid exorbitant prices. San BVwicisoo BuUntuj. |