MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 171 



details as follows: — "And now as respects the leading points in cultivation. 

 Supposing the plants established in a suitable house — which is an indispensable 

 preliminary — the following rules will be found to contain all that is most 

 essential for their successful 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 

 husks, and others in baskets of wire or wicker-work rilled with moss and broken 

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

 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 is of course 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. Kxotic 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, of course, depends 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 Phaius, Gongora, Peristeria, 

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

 third year; on the other hand, there are sume air-plants, &c. that may remain 

 undisturbed for five or ten years together. 



" 3rd. Beware of noxious insects. • 



" Orchidareae are more particularly exposed to the attacks of the following 

 insects : — woodlice, crickets, and cockroaches, the thrip, a minute woolly white 

 scale, and a diminutive species of snail; the two last being infinitely the most 

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

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

 be called in. The ' Oniscamyntic Epiphyte-stand,' invented by Mr. Lyons, is 

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

 made by merely fixing a forked branch, or block of wood, to the raised centre of 

 a massive saucer or feeder, which, being kept constantly full of water, forms a 

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

 Crickets and ci.ckroaches are very fond of flower-scapes, and to be dreaded 

 accordingly. Red waters scattered over and among the pots are to them very 

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

 these pests are best destroyed by the mixture recommended for the white scale. 

 The thrip does not do much mischief, except where plants are either neglected 

 or grown in too hot and dry a temperature. It usually first appears among the 

 Lataseta, and is to be removed 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 tenderest routs, such as plants put forth when they are just 

 beginning to grow, and if not kept in check wnuld speedily produce irretrievable 

 mjcchief. Lettuce-leaves, slices of potato, turnip, &c, are very enticing; and 

 while they divert the attention of the enemy from the roots, they also afford an 

 opportunity of capturing him. The collections which are watered exclusively 

 with rain-water are the least infested. But the worst plague of all is the small 

 white scale, which, in its first insidious approaches, appears only as a white speck 

 upon the leaves, then covers them with a solt whitish down, and finally kills 

 tliein. For this the following remedy will be found efficacious ; viz., dissolve 



