ORCHIDS OF LESSER VALUE 177 



given an ample supply at other seasons. It loves plenty of light, 

 and only needs shade from the hottest mid-day sun. 



BULBOPHYLLUM 



In the " Kew Hand-list of Orchids," dated 1904, no fewer 

 than seventy species of Bulbophyllums are cited as being in 

 cultivation in the Kew collection, but the extent of the genus is 

 no indication of its popularity or its horticultural value. To the 

 botanist and the lover of the curious the many species appeal very 

 strongly, but most florists, gardeners, and nurserymen regard them 

 as some of the " weeds " of the great Orchid family. The genus 

 is widely spread, and species are found in such widely separated 

 regions as the Malay, Central America, Africa and Australasia. 

 It is difficult to treat on such a large genus in a general way, but 

 it has been found that the great majority of species thrive in peat 

 and sphagnum, in pans or baskets, and love plenty of heat and 

 moisture when growing freely, but need much less moisture and 

 slightly cooler conditions when " resting." Most of the species 

 are evergreen, but a few, like Bulbophyllum comosum, are 

 deciduous. 



B. BARBiGERUM is a tiny plant with little spikes of dull purple 

 flowers, each of which is furnished with an articulate lip that 

 carries a tuft of silky hairs, and oscillates in a peculiar, jerky 

 manner, with every movement of the air ; B. comosum produces 

 dense, decurved, brush-like spikes of whitish, hay-scented flowers ; 

 B. Ericssonii carries its large, yellowish-white flowers in an 

 umbellate cluster ; B. grandiflorum is the largest flowered 

 member of the genus, its upper sepal often measuring nearly five 



