THE 



GARDENER 



FEBRUARY 1881. 



ORCHIDS. • 



Indian CpwOCus. 



E WILLIAMS, in his admirable work on Orchid-culture, 

 goes so far as to say that these lovely mountain Orchids 

 kM ^M ^^^ somewhat neglected by gardeners and Orchid culti- 

 ».^.^w|| vators generally. They are so beautiful, and flower in 

 autumn at such a welcome time, that they are not at all 

 deserving of neglect, — indeed, on the other hand, worthy of the most 

 assiduous culture. Even where but " a few Orchids " are grown, they 

 should find a place on account of their distinct habit of growth, and, 

 by comparison with their own bulb and leaf growth, enormous flowers. 

 If you take the largest-blossomed Lycaste known, and measure it and 

 the smallest -flowered Pleione, bulb for bulb and leaf for leaf, you 

 will find that the Pleione has flowers three times larger in proportion ! 

 I am just reminded of these upland gems by the sight of my own 

 little collection of them just sprouting up into growth like young 

 Palms from their mossy beds of sphagnuni, which, being seen betwixt 

 the eye and the light, is of the loveliest green tint imaginable. I am 

 the more particularly interested in them because all my stock is or 

 has been the gifts of kind Orchid-growing friends. As it is now the 

 fashion to boast of one's presents in the horticultural press, I suppose 

 I must boast of mine also. Well, about six weeks ago I received 

 from a kind friend on the north side of the great "saumon river" 

 a long shallow box, the look and probable contents of which was at 

 first somewhat of a puzzle to me. On opening it, however, and re- 

 moving the layers of soft paper and cotton wool, there lay exposed to 

 view three rows of splendidly grown bulbs of Pleione lagenaria — 



D 



