212 THE PIvANT WORIvD 



Briefer Articles. 



THE LEUCOCRINUM. 



This plant, as its name signifies, is a little white lily, sometimes called 

 sand lily. The Colorado child calls it a crocus and it certainly resembles 

 this European wild flower, but it is daintier and is rich in perfume. It lies 

 on the grey alkali plain like patches of freshly-fallen snow, but the sun 

 does not wither it like the primroses, for it lasts the entire day. To press 

 one and keep its white sheen, dip quickly into boiling water and then 

 carefully lay between sheets of blotting paper. Treated otherwise it 

 blackens in drying. 



At blossom time the ovary lies just above the ground, the long tube 

 of the calyx extending several inches above. When in June I sought it 

 to gather seeds, no flower-stalk could be seen, only the grass-like leaves. 

 By digging down several inches below the surface the ovaries were found 

 well perfected as large as garden peas, but in nine-tenths of these some- 

 thing had bored a round hole and eaten or taken away the three morning- 

 glory shaped seeds. Had ant been fed or had an egg been laid in the 

 blossom to hatch and eat its way out ? 



The few seeds I gathered required much digging for, and none of them 

 germinated, though tested in Colorado, North Carolina and Wisconsin 

 climates. Mrs. A. E. Goetting. 



Cincinnati, Ohio. 



ORCHIDS IN THE TROPICS. 



Beyond the marshes lie a region of quintas (small farms), which are 

 chiefly devoted to the raising of orchids for the European trade. What 

 an easy and pleasant employment, and how profitable, remembering the 

 " fancy " prices that are paid for the rarer varieties. We stopped at one 

 of the orchid ranches, whose English proprietor, a " younger son," who 

 came here practically penniless, is recouping the family fortunes in 

 England and enabling the titled brother to keep up an estate which his 

 ancestors loaded with mortgages. His methods seem very simple, but 

 with true British uncommunicativeness he did not tell us much about 

 them. He showed us his nursery, where were several thousand small 

 wooden boxes, in each of which is nailed a stick, the latter wrapped with 

 sphagnum moss, among which an orchid plant was tied. The lovely 

 epiphytes grow wild all over Colombia, in an infinite variety of form and 

 coloring. The growers send natives out into the woods and hills to collect 



