[Pictured to the right is a Cattleya orchid.] “Members of earth’s largest, most complex plant family, orchids grow on every continent except Antarctica. Some are already threatened with extinction—victims of a century of collectors’ depredations. Most of the spectacular 'Catts' seen in corsages are hybrids of such tropical American species as these Cattleya trianaei.”
(Text from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "The Exquisite Orchids," April 1971, National Geographic magazine)
