MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE 45 



following lules will be found to contain all that is most essential for their suc- 

 cess! ul management. 



1st. The plants can scarcely have'too much light or too little sun. 



Light prevents mildew, strengthens the fibre, and checks the disposition to 

 throw up a succession of weakly shoots, which are quite incompatible with the 

 production of flowers. The sun, on the contrary, scorches and turns the leaves 

 yellow, especially when it first begins to shine powerfully upon plants that have 

 just left their winter quarters. In order to secure as much light as possible, 

 many species should be suspended in the air from rafters or chains, some being 

 placed on blocks of wood (Cork wood is the best), or fragments of Cocoa-nut 

 busks, and others in baskets of wire or wicker-work filled with moss and broken 

 peat, or in pots with pierced sides. The latter answer perfectly for plants (e. //., 

 the Saccolabiums), which are of slow growth, and thrust their roots into the air. 

 Baskets answer best for Stanhopeas and the like. To prevent injury from the 

 rays of the sun, shading! < ofcourse necessary, but this should be so arranged 

 as to be easily removed, as it ought not to be continued for more than ten or 

 twelve hours on the very longest summer's day. Exotic climbing plants intro- 

 duced sparingly are advantageous, and have a good effect. 



2nd. Take care of the roots. ' 



On the health of the roots everything depends. The winter is with them the 

 most critical season, for if suffered to grow too dry they shrivel up and perish : 

 if too wet they rot. Much, ofcourse, defends upon the "mode in which the plants 

 are potted, and which should be such as to admit of their readily parting with 

 all superfluous moisture ; and to secure this nothing is better than a plentiful 

 admixture of broken potsherds. High-potting is now so generally practised 

 in good collections, that it is needless to insist upon its importance. Rapidly- 

 growing plants, such as the different species of Phalus, Gougora, Peiisteria, 

 Stanhopea, &c, require to be broken up and entirely repotted every second or 

 third year ; on ihe other hand, there are some Air-plants, &c, that may remain 

 undisturbed for five or ten years together. 



3rd. Beware of noxious insects. 



Orchidaceae are more particularly exposed to the attacks of the following 

 insects: — woi.dbce, crickets, and cockroacl.es, the thiip. a minute woolly white 

 scale, and a diminutive species of snail : the two last being infinitely the mi st 

 pernicious. Woodlice are easily kept in check by placing the plants on saucers, 

 or within troughs rilled with water, especially if the valuable aid of a few toads 

 be called in. The " Oniscamyntrc hpiphyte-stand," invented by Mr. Lyons, 

 is an ingenious and. no doubt, effectual way of accomplishing the same end. It 

 is made by meiely fixing a forked branch, or block of woo., to the raised centre 

 oi' a massive saucer or ieeder, which, t eing kept constantly full of water, forms 

 a sort of fosse— impassable to vermin — round the plant it is intended to guard. 

 Crickets i.nd Cockroaches are verv loud of flower-scapes, and to be dieaded ac- 

 cordingly. Red wafers scattered over and ammig the pets are to them very 

 templing baits, and, if swallowed, the red lead they contain acts as a poison, 

 but these pests are liest destroyed by the mixture recommended foi ihe white 

 scale. The ihrip does m.t do much mischief, except where plants are either 

 neglected, or grown in too hot and dry a temperature. It usually first appears 

 among the Cataseta, and is to be lemuved by careful washing. Small snails 

 abound in some collections, while in others they are unknown ; it is difficult to 

 conjecture whence they come, and all but impossible to eradicate them entirely. 

 They batten upon the teuderest roots, such as plants put forth when they are 

 just beginning to grow, and if not kept in check would speedily produce irre- 

 trievable mi-chief. Lettuce-leaves, slics of potatne, turnip, &c., are very en- 

 ticing ; and while they divert the attention ot the enemy from the roots, they 

 also afford an opportunity of capturing him. The collections which are watered 

 exclusively wit u lain water are the least infested. But the woist plague of all 

 is the small white scale, v.hicn, in its first insidious approaches, appears only 

 as a white 8| eckupou the leaves, then coven them with a soft whitish down, and 

 finally kids them. For this the following remedy will le found efficacious; viz., 

 dissolve half a pound of camphor in a pint of spints of wine ; the result will be 

 an impalpable powder, to which add one pound of Scotch snuff; one ditto 

 pepper; one d.tto, tulphur, and keep in a bottle (carefully stopped). Tins 



