MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 189 



aud produce a profusion of delicate lilac pink blossom, banging iu clusters. 

 Being cheap and of easy culture, it d -serves a place in every greenhouse, or 

 to stand upon a lawn, or to train up a pillar, or against a trellis, &c> 



On the Colchicum, Orchis, &c— The single and the double Colchicums 

 are beautiful, and give variety to our gardens at a late season. The popu- 

 lar belief, that the fruit or seed of Colchicum is produced previously to the 

 flower, is wholly unfounded ; and, as the peculiarity in the appearance of 

 fructification of this plant, generally excite the curiosity of Florists. The 

 orchis mascula, which from the rich purple of its petals, and dark-spotted 

 leaves, merits aplace among our cultivated flowers are rarely seen in gar- 

 dens, it being generally supposed that there is some peculiar difficulty in 

 removing the roots of this curious tribe of plants from their native situations 

 of growth. I have in a former work hazarded the conjecture, that the Orchis, 

 in removal, did not require different treatment from that necessary to be 

 given to all bulbous plants under the same circumstances ; and I have since 

 confirmed the justness of this conjecture by experiment. 



It is requisite that the leaves of all bulbous plants should be wholly 

 decayed before their roots are transplanted, as, until the change has taken 

 place, the process of growth in the annual renewal of the bulb continues in 

 progress, and the growth of this new bulb is checked by any injury which 

 the leaves of the old bulb may sustain. Nevertheless, as it is frequently 

 expedient to remove bulbous plants while their leaves are green, and even 

 during the time in which they are in flower, this may be safely effected, if 

 done with proper precaution, and also the root may be preserved in a 

 healthy state, although it will certainly be weakened. All bulbs, if trans- 

 planted while their leaves are in vigour, should be removed with as much 

 soil as will adhere to the bulbs, and great care must be taken not to cut or 

 bruise the root, or the root-fibres. When transplanted, their leaves should 

 be carefully tied to a stick, and suffered to remain until they naturally 

 tail from the plant. If bulbous plants, during their state of vigorous foliage, 

 are sent to a distance, they should have the same attention given them, and 

 the soil should be closely pressed round the bulbs, and their leaves nicely 

 tied together, and the whole wrapped in sheet lead, which, by keeping them 

 from the air, will prevent the evaporation of their juices, and preserve 

 them for a week or ten days nearly as well as if they were placed in soil for 

 that period. 



We find the Orchis kind characterised as bearing two distinct bulbs, and 

 the difficulty of removing any of the species from the fields into our gar- 

 dens ascribed to some peculiarity in the plant. Also the rare circumstance 

 of the autumnal Colchicum not ripening its seeds until the spring after their 

 formation in the preceding autumn, has given rise to an unwarranted opi- 

 nion that the fruit is produced previously to the expansion of the flower, 

 and which, from want of a little farther investigation, has become an esta- 

 blished popular belief. 



I am desirous to rouse my sister florists to the exertion of seeing for 

 themselves ; and by shewing with how little trouble the errors mentioned 

 above may be confuted, I hope to excite them not to acquiescence in the 

 belief of any extraordinary fact, until they have examined the foundation 

 on which it rests. 1 have annexed some representations of the bulb of the 

 large purple Orchis mascula, which will fully refute the belief which obtains 

 of that order of plants bearing double bulbs, and will also exhibit the ex- 

 traordinary change which takes place in the form of the bulb from its early 

 state of growth to the time it has attained perfect maturity ; and respecting 

 the difficulty of removal, I can aver from experience, that there will not be 

 found any circumstance necessary to be regarded, but what occurs in the 

 transplantation of all other bulbous flowers during the periods of their 

 growth ; and as the large purple Orchis will be found peculiarly ornamental 

 in the borders of the ming/ed flower-garden, our trouble in bringing it 

 ♦ hither will be well repaid. 



