ORCHIDEOUS EPIPHYTES. 



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ORCHIDEOUS EPIPHYTES. 



live ; and he also remarked that 

 rough and soft-barked trees were their 

 favourite abodes. He found Onci- 

 dium papilio, and a kind of Schom- 

 burghia, called by the Indians the 

 Spread Eagle, on the upper branches 

 of trees which were exposed to the 

 air, and at least from twenty to 

 thirty feet from the ground, and 

 0. luridum, and the Catasetums, 

 on branches fully exposed to the 

 sun ; while the Gongoras, Eodri- 

 guezias, and Corysanthes were on 

 the soft and young wood, not more 

 than seven or eight feet from the 

 ground, in the most dense and 

 thickest parts of the forest. These 

 hints, and the observations of other 

 collectors, have been of great sei'vice 

 to cultivators ; and, in consequence, 

 they generally grow their Epiphj-tes 

 on rough-barked trees (that of the 

 Rohinia Pseud-Acacia, Cobbett's 

 Locust, for example), half covering 

 the log with moss to retain the 

 moisture, and to imitate the soft 

 woolly bark of some of the trees of 

 the tropics. These logs are hung 

 from nails in the rafters, or from 

 rods suspended across the roof ; and 

 the pseudo-bulbs, or rhizomas, of 

 the plants are bound on them "nith 

 fine wire, and covered with sphag- 

 num or some other kind of moss. 

 Messrs. Loddiges use living plants 

 of Lycopodiuni stoloniferum, which 

 have the advantage of looking 

 better, as well as of retaining more 

 moisture than any kind of dead 

 moss. Mr. Beaton makes a ball of 

 moss, which he suspends in the 

 liollow formed by the branches of a 

 three-forked stick, which he hangs 

 up from the rafters till the plants 

 are established ; and then he places 

 the stick in a pot, taking care that 

 the length of the stick below the 

 fork is sufficient to hold up the ball 

 of moss with the plant attached, 

 just above the rim of the pot — after 



which he fills up the pot with 

 pieces of tui-fy peat. When the 

 Orchideous plants are grown in 

 wire baskets, the baskets should be 

 made of copper wire, or, if of iron, 

 they should be painted with anti- 

 corrosive paint. They should be 

 formed shallow, and wide at the 

 top, with the bars sufficiently apart 

 to allow the flower-stems of the 

 Stanhopeas, and other plants sen- 

 ding out their flower-stems from 

 their roots, to push their way 

 through, and to hang down between 

 the bars. For this reason, baskets 

 I which are narrow at the base, are 

 not suitable for any Orchideous 

 plants but those that send up their 

 flower- stems from their pseudo- 

 bulbs. The baskets for Stanhopeas 

 and other root-flowering plants, 

 should be from three to six inches 

 deep, and from six to ten inches 

 wide ; and they should be filled 

 with moss, or with strips of tui-f 

 two or three inches wide, and placed 

 on end round the inside of the 

 basket, so as to stand nearly up- 

 right, with a large flat piece in the 

 centre. The plant should be placed 

 in the middle, and the basket filled 

 up with broken pieces of turf, mixed 

 with crocks or cinders, if the plant 

 be very delicate, and easily afl'ected 

 with too much moistui-e. These 

 baskets are very convenient for 

 Orchideous plants, as they may 

 j either be suspended from the roof, 

 or placed on an inverted pot ; or, 

 ' if the plant requires bottom-heat, 

 ■ the basket may be placed on the 

 , surface of a pot plunged in the hot- 

 ; bed. The basket also looks better 

 and more elegant than a flower-pot 

 I when the plant is in flower, and is 

 brought into a drawing-room. When 

 Orchideous plants arrive from 

 abroad, Mr. Beaton first throws 

 i them into water ; and after they have 

 ' been thoroughly washed, he puts 



