iprU 1, 1875.1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



219 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



of 

 Month 



Day 



of 

 Week. 



Th 



F 



S 



SuH 



U 



To 



W 



APBIL 1—7, 1875. 



Linnean Society at 8 p.m. 

 Geologists' Association at 8 f.u. 



1 Sunday after Easter. 

 Entomologiisal Society at 8.30 P.M. 

 Zoological Society at 7 p.m. 



Eoyal Horticultural Society, Fruit and Floral Com- 

 [ mittee at II a.m. 



Average 



Temperature near 



London. 



Sun 

 Eises. 



Day. 



56.0 

 67.8 

 67.1 

 56.7 

 67.0 

 67.0 

 67.7 



NiRht. 

 34.4 

 36.7 

 35.7 

 35 7 

 36.7 

 36.9 



Mean. I m. h. 

 44.7 ! 87af5 

 8.5 5 

 83 5 



40.6 

 46.4 

 46.2 

 40.0 

 47.2 

 47.3 



30 

 28 



Sun 



Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



30 aJ 6 I 16 a( 4 



Hoon'8 

 Age. 



Clock 

 before 

 Sun. 



Days. 

 25 



27 

 28 



O 

 1 



2 44 

 2 26 



Day 



of 



Year. 



91 

 92 

 93 

 94 

 95 

 96 

 97 



86.1°, 



From obseryations takeia near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 56.9°; and its night t&mperatore 



THE OKCHID-HUNTER IN BURMAH.— No. 1. 



inuGh has been written, and well wi'itten, 

 about Orchids that it seems difficult to break 

 fresh ground and note anything new about 

 them useful and instructive to the horticul- 

 turist, to the lover of Orchids, and to all 

 interested in this charming tribe of plants. 



The observations of the Orchid-hunter 

 made at their places of growth may, how- 

 ever, prove to be of considerable use both to 

 the professional cultivator and the amateur. 

 The habits of the different species, their situation, the 

 mode in which they grow, the special circumstances of 

 temperature to which they are exposed, their time and 

 mode of flowering, are all matters which the Orchid-hunter 

 has special opportunities of observing ; and it is probable 

 that there are stni many small points on which the horti- 

 culturist remains uninformed, the elucidation of which may 

 furnish valuable hints to all interested in their cultivation. 

 The subject is not one easily exhausted, and a more per- 

 fect appreciation and knowledge of these plants and their 

 wants maybe gained from observations made on the spot. 

 The notes on Orchids, epiphytal and terrestrial, will 

 specially include the chief abodes of the different va- 

 rieties, regarding which more errors are extant than 

 on any other point connected with them — errors partly 

 caused by the people to whom they were first consigned 

 considering them as natives of the ports from whence 

 they were dispatched to England, and partly from the 

 jealousy of the collectors, who were not at all desirous 

 that their Eldorado should be discovered by the general 

 pubhc. A remarkable instance of an error of this kind 

 occurs in that carefully-written and admirable work on 

 Orchids, " The Orchid-Grower's Manual," by Mr. WUliams, 

 where it is stated that Cypripedium niveum is a native of 

 Moulmein. Cypripedium concolor, a plant very nearly 

 allied to it, comes from the neighbourhood of Moulmein, 

 where it grows on the limestone rocks ; but Cypripedium 

 niveum has never been found there nor in any other 

 part of Burmah. It comes from the Straits of Malacca, 

 and finds its way to Moulmein by the coasting steamers, 

 where it is much in request in exchange for Moulmein 

 Orchids. It is thus that Moulmein has the credit of being 

 the home of this Orchid, one of the most beautiful of the 

 Cypripediums. 



A knowledge of the correct geographical distribution of 

 these plants is very valuable to the horticulturist, as from 

 this he gains a good idea of the different kinds accustomed 

 to the several circumstances of climate. In his remarks 

 on Orchids, the description of their haunts and manner 

 of growth, the Orchid-hunter cannot well do better than 

 commence with a description of the Dendrobiums, the 

 most numerous class of all the Burmese Orchids. 



The nigro-hirsute Dendrobiums, a genus having small 

 dark hairs on the new growth, and which, as a rule, flower 

 before shedding their leaves, claim early attention, both 

 from their beauty and the sweetness of many of then- 

 flowers, and from their not having the objection of being 



No. 731.— Vol. XXVIU., New Series. 



denuded of their leaves during the season of flowering, as 

 is the case with such a large number of other plants of the 

 same genus. All these individually caused a sensation 

 when they were first introduced, and they are still fa- 

 vourites with all cultivators of Orchids. 



The special home of Dendrobium formosum is on the 

 hills to the south of the road running from Moulmein to 

 Amherst. They are found sparingly scattered over other 

 parts of Burmah, but here they are in thousands. The 

 first sight that meets the Orchid-hunter travelling down 

 the road to Amherst during the summer months is large 

 baskets full of the flower shoots of this splendid plant 

 being brought into the Moulmein market, where they are 

 sold to the Burmese women to wear in their hair, the 

 market price of each flower spike being about sixpence. 

 Sometimes as many as ten men at a time are seen, each 

 carrying two baskets slung on a bamboo full of these 

 flowers, so that the air along the road is quite perfumed 

 with their scent. 



These Dendrobiums almost invariably grow on the 

 Pedonk tree ; and besides the two varieties commonly 

 known to gardeners as Dendrobium formosum and Den- 

 drobium formosum giganteum, there is a very distinct 

 variety known in Burmah under the name of Dendro- 

 bium formosum Amherstianum. This is a charming 

 plant, more dehoate than the two preceding kinds, the 

 yellow in the throat and on the labellum being of a pale 

 straw colour. The racemes of this variety are slender, 

 and the plant is quite wanting in that robustness of habit 

 which characterises the common Dendrobium formosum. 

 This variety is scarce, and likely to continue so, as it is 

 not so easy of cultivation as the other varieties. It grows 

 on the trees near the sea at Amherst, and has not at pre- 

 sent been found anywhere else. 



All these varieties of formosum grow on the branches 

 of trees in the most exposed situations, subject to the 

 influences of a blazing sun in the summer and to a con- 

 tinual downpour of rain during the rainy season ; the 

 rainfall in this part of Burmah averaing 200 inches, 

 during the season. 



Were it not for the dews at night during the summer 

 months the plants would undoubtedly die. Thousands 

 of the small seedlings, and some of the larger plants, as 

 it is die every season. This shows that, although this 

 like other Orchids requires a season of rest, it is necessary 

 for the cultivator to imitate the nightly dews during the 

 resting season, which is best dune by giving a very slight 

 watering at the roots in the early morning; by this 

 means the horticulturist can not only insure the plant 

 keeping in a robust and healthy condition, but he can 

 improve on the circumstances of Nature by supplying 

 during the scorching months that shelter which the plant 

 does not have in its native jungles. 



During the season of growtla it is unnecessary to say 

 that plenty of water is essential to its well-being. — E. S. B. 



CUPBESSUS LAWSONIANA. 

 Of the many evergreen trees and shrubs of late years in- 

 troduced there are none in my estimation so beautiful as 



No. 1383.— Vol. LIU., Old Series. 



