THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 1G1 



NOTES ON ORCHIDS. 



BY GEORGE GORDON. 

 ( With Coloured Illustration of Thunia Bensonice.) 



jlRCHIDS have bad ample justice done them in the pages 

 of the Floral World, as a reference to the indexes 

 of past volumes will show, but the appearance of a 

 portrait of the beautiful Thunia Bensonice presents a 

 most favourable opportunity for once more directing 

 attention to the claims they have upon the amateur. A few years 

 since, the cultivation of orchids was considered quite beyond the 

 means of any but the most wealthy ; for expensive houses, and an 

 excessively high temperature, were looked on as most essential to 

 success. Added to this, the cost of the plants themselves was quite 

 sufficient to place them beyond the reach of the amateur with limited 

 means. Now, all this has changed, for an extended acquaintance 

 with them has shown that the more simply the orchid-house is con- 

 structed, the better it is for the health of the plants, and also that a 

 very large number of species can be grown in a comparatively cool 

 temperature. The reduction in price of the most showy kinds has 

 also been very considerable, and now strong plants of a very large 

 number can be obtained for a less sum than the price paid for a 

 " tricolor " geranium when first sent out. Indeed, in a catalogue 

 before me, Dendrobium nobile, which is most beautiful and easily 

 grown, is quoted at five shillings, and Oncidium flexuosum, and 

 Phaius grandifolia both showy and free-flowering, at a trifle over two- 

 thirds of that sum ; and in another catalogue a collection of twenty- five 

 are offered for four pounds, and superior collections, both for cool and 

 high temperatures, for eight pounds each, or the fifty plants, which 

 would form a very good collection to begin with, for sixteen pounds ! 

 This is merely mentioned to show that orchids are not such expensive 

 luxuries as they once were, and are even now generally supposed to 

 be. Of course the plants at so low a price are not large, but it is 

 better for the young beginner to commence with small, instead of 

 large plants, because of the extra pleasure afforded in watching their 

 development into fair-sized specimens. And in case of failure with 

 any of the kinds, the loss will be very inconsiderable when the plants 

 are small. 



Apart from the above considerations, and the gorgeousness of 

 their flowers, they possess many advantages over ordinary stove 

 plants, but two only will be noticed here. First of all, the labour of 

 the annual or periodical renewal of the stock from cuttings common 

 to a stock of ordinary stove-plants is avoided, for they do not soon 

 outgrow the space allotted to them, and they increase in value as they 

 increase in size. When it is wished to increase any particular 

 species, the plants can, with but i'ew exceptions, be divided just as 

 they are starting into growth, and each portion potted and otherwise 

 managed in the same way as established specimens. Secondly, there 



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