Reminds me of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How Do I Love Thee":

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Perhaps a little too fulsome for just a plant, no matter how much we love our
orchids. BTW, in acknowledgement, I copied the above from
http://www.amherst.edu/~rjyanco/lite...nttheways.html

On Fri, 9 Dec 2005 18:19:34 -0500, "Diana Kulaga"
wrote:

A friend found this on the AOS forum. Thought I'd share, as I believe it
expresses what many of us feel.

Diana

Following is a partial transcription of a chapter in a digitized book
published in 1893.
The book that the excerpt comes from is at:

http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/...=jpg&PageNum=2

About Orchids
A Chat
by Frederick Boyle

Among the gentle forms of intellectual excitement I know not one to compare
with the joy of restoring a neglected orchid to health. One may buy such for
coppers--rare species, too--of a size and a "potentiality' of display which
the dealers would estimate at as many pounds were they in good condition on
their shelves. I am avoiding names and details, but it will be allowed me to
say in brief, that I myself have bought more than twenty pots for five
shillings at the auction-rooms, not twice nor thrice either. One half of
them were sick beyond recovery, some few had been injured by accident, but
by far the greater part were victims of ignorance and ill-temperment which
might still be redressed. Orchids tell their own tale, whether of happiness
or misery, in characters beyond dispute. Mr. O'Brien alleged, indeed, before
the grave and experienced signors gathered in conference, that "like the
domestic animals they soon find out when they are in hands that love them.
With such a guardian they seem to be happy, and to thrive, and to establish
an understanding, indicating to him their wants in many important matters as
plainly as though they could speak." And the laugh that followed this
statement was not derisive. He who glances at the endless tricks, methods,
and contrivances devised by one or other species to serve it's turn may well
come to fancy that orchids are reasoning things.


Dave Gillingham
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