In the Australian Orchid Review, March 1939, there was published an interesting 
article on Blister Culture by Mr. Joseph Shaw (reprinted at foot’of page). It 
seems to me that this method should be particularly suited to Sarcochilus. 
SARCOCHILUS ARMITII. Native of North Queensland (Burdekin River). 
A small growing species with lanceolate leaves 14 to 24 inches long and from 
4 to $-inch in width. Spikes 1} to 3 inches long, bearing a few tiny flowers with 
oblong sepals and rounded petals. Lip short, with ovate side lobes and rounded 
middle lobe. In colour, white or creamy. Flowers in Spring. This tiny plant 
requires warm, moist conditions. It will require glasshouse treatment in Brisbane, 
with heat in the South. Ample water throughout the Summer, with only enough 
to avoid shrivelling in Winter. Wiring them on a good, fibrous slab of tree fern 
stem is as good a means of growing them as any other. For those who wish to 
pot them, a thin layer of staghorn peat over a good quantity of crocks and 
charcoal will serve. 
SARCOCHILUS AUSTRALIS. Native of Queensland, New South Wales, Vic- 
toria, and Tasmania. 
An attractive species with slender stems which are clothed with a considerable 
number of oblong, sometimes falcate leaves about 4 inches in length and deep 
green in colour. Racemes slender, longer than the leaves and bearing four or five 
fragrant flowers each about j-inch across. Sepals and petals vary from olive- 
brown to straw colour, the lip being marked with brown, red or purplish lines. 
Flowers in Spring and lasts two to three weeks. Treatment as for S. falcatus. 
SARCOCHILUS BERKLEYI. Native of Malaya. 
One of the exotic species with short stems clothed with strap-shaped, obtuse, 
dark green leaves, keeled on the underside. The drooping racemes bear a number 
of small flowers, the sepals and petals white, dorsal sepal bent forward into a 
somewhat hooded form, the typical, fleshy, saccate lip being stained with mauve, 
the middle lobe having two small horns. The short column has another which 
somewhat resembles the head and neck of a bird. Flowers in Spring and lasts two 
Blister Culture, by Joseph Shaw—The title suggests something synthetic; in actual fact, 
“Blisters” are the reverse. They are natural rafts of wood. 
We know of rafts, blocks, teak baskets, etc., but nothing, to my mind, can come up to these 
quaint containers. They are, in short, log blisters, tree blisters, hollow protuberances, knurls, 
lumps, pimples, cancers—call them what you will—they are the wounds of a broken limb which 
have healed over from some growing tree damaged by wind or bump. They are to be seen 
commonly in forest country. They are mostly found on wind-swept ridges where flooded Gum, 
Box, Blackbutt, Yellow Stringybark and Bloodwood, etc., grow. But almost any uncleaned pad- 
dock will yield a few. I have obtained eight and nine off one log, but this is an exception. 
I should mention that I have a fair knowledge of timbers and forest country, but this is not 
at all necessary to procure these; a little enthusiasm, plus the energy, and any grower who has 
the opportunity of getting into a forest paddock can procure a few. In fact, many can be found 
by the roadside on country roads. 
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