1871.] CALANTHE. 63 



breaking up the ball, for there are no coiled roots in it to disen- 

 tangle — they are more like those of a Box or Privet bush than a 

 Vine, as usually seen ; and when planted, they begin by taking their 

 work before them, instead of running away out of the border. 



So much for the Vines. And now as to what may be done with 

 a view to retaining this tendency to a multiplication of small active 

 roots right across the border. Just make up 3 feet of it inside and 

 3 feet outside the house the first year. In April or May of the 

 second year, fork down 1 or 2 inches of the face of this bank of 

 soil, both inside and outside the house ; and against the roots that 

 will there be found, some of them taking the lead, place a section 

 of sharp river or pit sand, or gravel, at least 4 inches thick. As 

 soon as the roots enter this poor sharp material, they will branch 

 into a thousand small active roots, and enter the layer of new soil 

 that has been subsequently laid against this sand or gravel. This 

 may be repeated at every addition to the border, and the result will 

 be that, instead of a few long, straight, naked roots, the whole bor- 

 der will be full of a class of active woody roots, that survive the 

 cold and wet of winter infinitely better than those great snake-like 

 ones formed in rich soil. These perpendicular sections of sand or 

 gravel have the additional advantage of acting as drains to draw off 

 superfluous water. Wm. Thomson. 



Dalkeith Park. 



CALANTHE. 



A FEW HINTS ON THEIR CULTIVATION. 



I AM often at a loss to account for the little use that is made of some 

 of these free-growing winter-blooming Orchids. Certainly it is not 

 that they require any extra amount of skill to grow them success- 

 fully ; and I know of no winter-flowering plants that are more useful 

 or beautiful for either cutting for glasses or mounted for bouquets, 

 or for ordinary stove decoration. And this must be evident to the 

 most casual observer, when it is considered that one spike, from the 

 time it commences to bloom to the finishing up, takes from three 

 to four months, and there are generally from 10 to 120 flowers out 

 at a time ; and if the spike is cut, it will keep good in a warm 

 room for a month. There is not another plant that I know so useful 

 for a constant supply, and that of a superior class of flowers ; but I 

 intend confining myself in these observations to what I grow for 

 autumn, — I may perhaps, Mr Editor, with your permission, have 

 something to say about the spring-blooming varieties another time. 

 Those that I use are chiefly C. vestita rubra oculata, V. lutea ocu- 



