* 
OFFSETS. 
of most other flowers, they seem 
unable to bear much light. They 
ee all of the easiest culture, and 
ill grow in any common garden 
soil, without any other care than 
occasionally taking up and replant- 
ing the perennial kinds, and sowing 
the annual and biennial ones every 
year in March or April. Of the 
biennial kinds, @. noctiirna and @. 
vilidsa, both natives of the Cape of 
Good Hepe, are rather tender ; and 
of the perennials, G7. résea, CE. 
cespiiésa and @. anisoloba, require 
a slight protection during winter. 
@. acaiilis, which is agpative of 
Chili, though a common border 
flower, should have a flower-pot or 
hand-glass turned over it in severe 
frosts ; CZ. cespitosa, and C4. ani- 
soldba, both splendid plants, should 
also be protected during winter, par- 
ticularly from heavy rains, as they 
are very apt to damp off if they are 
exposed to too much moisture. Pax- 
ton recommends removing the damp 
soil from the roots of these plants 
when growing in the open ground 
in October, and after replacing it 
with dry soil, covering the plant with 
dry saw-dust, and setting a flower- | 
pot over it, the hole in the bottom 
having been first stopped to keep 
out the snow and rain. In this state 
it should remain till Mareh, when 
the saw-dust should be removed, and | 
the plant covered with a hand-glass | 
till it can bear exposure to the cold. 
Both kinds should be grown in a 
mixture of peat and loam ; and both | 
are propagated by dividing the root | 
into pieces about an inch and a half | 
jong in autumn, and planting them. 
Orrsets are a natural means by 
which plants propagate themselves. | 
n bulbs, the offsets are small bulbs 
which form by the side of the prin- 
cipal one, from which they should 
be brokenwff when the bulbs are 
taken up and replanted. In shrubs 
and perennial plants, the offsets 
: her spring from the collar of the 
300 
i 
ONCIDIUM. 
old plant, or from an underground 
stem; and in both cases, as they 
are provided with roots of their own, 
though they draw a part of their 
support from the main stem, they 
only require dividing and replanting 
to form new plants. 
Ortep Paper, or silk, is often 
used as a substitute for glass in hot- 
bed frames, for raising seeds or 
striking cuttings: and it is pecu- 
liarly adapted for the latter purpose, 
as it generates more heat than 
glass. 
Oxtp Man’s Bearp.—See Gero- 
PO’GON. & 
OLeEa’NDER.—See NeE‘rium. 
Onc pium.— Orchidacee.— W ell- 
known orchideous plants with very 
curious flowers. O. papilio, the 
Butterfly-plant, is certainly as much 
like a butterfly as it is possible to 
imagine a flower to be; and as it is 
borne on a long slender stem, which 
quivers with every breeze, it forms 
no bad representation of a beautiful 
insect fluttering over the neighbour- 
ing flowers. O. altissimum has a 
spike of flowers which is sometimes 
ten or twelve feet in length. All 
the kinds are very handsome, and 
some of them are splendid. They 
are all natives of South America, 
Mexico, and the West Indies; and 
as they will thrive in a much lower 
temperature than the Dendrobiums, 
and some of the other Orchidacee, 
they are very suitable for a small 
hothouse. All the kinds may be 
grown in pots, though some of the 
smallest appear to thrive most tied 
on pieces of wood, and hung from 
the rafters. The soil should be turfy 
peat, ‘~oken in pieces about the 
size of gooseberries, and mixed with 
an equal quantity of potsherds bro- 
ken somewhat smaller. The pots 
should be large, and filled a third 
of their depth with broken potsherds 
rather larger than those mixed with 
the soil. Great care should be taken 
in repotting any of the Oncidiums 
