There they lived, died, dried up, and floated away, leaving no trace. Soysa, writing in Orchid Culture in Ceylon, advances the delightful and plausible, if unproved, theory that orchids antedated the fossil era, but in their love of light ascended trees to escape the advancing jungle. Since most orchids are epiphytic - that is, having aerial roots through which they receive sustenance from the minerals in the moisture-laden air of the tropics - they have left no traces such as the fossilized remains of ground-growing plants. The beginnings of the orchid family are shrouded in mystery. The orchid grower checks his mundane worries at the door of the greenhouse and enters a world that offers surcease even to the heart heavily burdened with sorrow and loss. Different methods of growing and the relative merits of hybrids and species are endlessly discussed among fellow growers. The habits and idiosyncrasies of every species and plant are subject to absorbed study.
The appearance of each new growth and root is cause for rejoicing the slimy mark of a snail or the cottony warning of the presence of scale is cause for distress.
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