ORCHIS AND ORCHIDS. 



flower; 0. Rajinesquii is the most indestructibly hardy of the 

 lot, producing light yellow blooms, but varying almost indefinitely, 

 with od forms to be found quoted in catalogues of such 



mati kan&ana, macrorrhiza, cymochila, &c. And 0. vulgaris 



is not content to be hardy, but has established itself as a wild plant in 

 Europe, though native, like all these others, to the New World; and 

 has not only established itself in Europe, but chosen the Alps for the 

 scene of its prosperity, where, at low elevations in the southerly 

 \ alleys, it may be seen luxuriating, as on the rocks of Sion, profuse 

 in the beauty of its yellow-silk roses. And there are other beauties, 

 too, in 0. militaris, 0. missouriensis, 0. rhodantha (very spiny and very 

 beautiful with noble satiny-pink peonies emerging from flattened little 

 columns of hate). All these to be collected from catalogues. Of Cereus, 

 especially seek out only C.viridiflorus, which has small odd green blooms 

 in June and July ; and C. paucispinus, which must have a specially 

 hot dry place, with its back up against the fireplace of a nice hot stove, 

 where it will accordingly burgeon forth freely into flowers of scarlet 

 with a green stigma ; and C. Eyresii, with dwarf green stems and large 

 white blossoms in July and August ; while Echinocactus tubijlorus has 

 about a dozen ribs to the trunks, and white trumpets in summer. 



Orchis and Orchids. — Properly transplanted and re-planted 

 there is no difficulty in the acclimatisation of Orchis, and all the English 

 species should have their best forms marked down in bloom, and, 

 either on the spot, or later, be translated to the garden into good deep 

 loam. Superstition vainly imposes all kinds of silly and unnecessary 

 taboos ; in point of fact, if an ample sod be taken, and the tubers 

 removed without touch or scar upon themselves, and promptly wrapped 

 in moss to avoid shrivelling on the way home, it is much better and 

 more convenient, and not in the least dangerous, to remove the plant 

 when you find it in flower. Only it must be remembered to take a solid 

 square chunk out of the earth, with no ungenerous slicing that may 

 imperil the tubers ; then, having got out the sod, the tuber may be 

 worried clear, and stripped of all its soil, and clad in moss or damp 

 paper, withoul the slightest peril, while the hole you have made in 

 the world can be put back. Of such, the best of our own are 0. mili- 

 taris, 0. maecvla, 0. mascnlata, 0. Morio, 0. latifolia, and the two prime 

 rarities, 0. hircina (Himantoglossum hircinum), and 0. laxijlora — 

 neither of these, of course, on any account to be collected in England, 

 i v. ii it yoi i should have the astounding luck to happen on them. The 

 Continent yields a score of lovely species beside, in a tale too long to 

 l.o recounted here, though on the Alps the pale-lemon spires of stout 

 0. eambucina clamour for collection, and on the Riviera and in the 



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