CULTIVATION OF ORCHIS LONGICORNU. 31 



visitors have often passed the flattering compliment, " how beau- 

 tiful your plants look, how brilliant and how grand," but as soon 

 as they had seen the handsome Orchis longicornu, their exclama- 

 tions have been, "0 deal", what charming thing is this? what a 

 most beautiful plant ! this i3 certainly the finest in the collec- 

 tion ;" and in comparison with it, all others previously admired 

 have been thrown, as it were, into the shade. 



In growing it, the grand secret is to pay it the greatest 

 attention when in a dormant state ; keep it then quite dry and 

 cold ; for it is one of the southern species and subjected to the 

 hot rays of the sun at the time when it is in full growth, and it 

 receives little or no moisture when at rest. My first bulb came 

 from Algiers, and I treated it as follows : — I broke a quantity of 

 light fibrous peat up roughly, adding half the quantity of well 

 decomposed leaf-mould, and a fourth part of good sharp sand with 

 a few clean and broken potsherds intermixed with it. Having my 

 compost mixed in this manner, I then prepared some nice clean 

 dry pots ; the size entirely depends upon the taste of the culti- 

 vator ; but what I have generally used are five-inch pots (or 48s) 

 for single bulbs, or I put three bulbs into six-inch pots (or 32s), 

 four bulbs into a seven-inch pot (or 24s), and five bulbs into an 

 eight-inch pot (or lGs), always placing the largest bulb in the 

 centre, in order that its strength might induce it to throw its 

 spike of bloom above the others. Great care must be taken to 

 drain the pots well by placing in the bottom about two inches in 

 depth of broken potsherds and rough charcoal. Upon the top of 

 that I place some of the most fibrous peat from the mixture, and 

 then the soil, planting the bulb about an inch deep, and not 

 pressing it down too hard, as it delights in a porous soil. When 

 potted, I place them in a cold frame or pit, never allowing frost 

 to touch them, I keep them quite diy until they begin to show 

 symptoms of growth, when they receive a little water, and as 

 vegetation advances, a more liberal supply is given. Abundance 

 of air is admitted, but I never allow the lights to be off in rainy 

 weather, as I have seen the plants severely injured by their 

 hearts becoming filled with water. I always use the greatest 

 caution, in watering, never to allow it, if possible, to touch their 

 foliage. 



The proper time for potting is in September, and Orchis longi- 

 cornu blooms from November until May. There is no plant with 

 which I am acquainted that remains in bloom the length of time 

 which this does. I have had one pot in perfection six months. I 



