66 ON BLOCKS. 



ON BLOCKS. To the uninitated nothing in culture seems more 

 strange than that flowering plants should grow and bloom on 

 dead logs of wood ; and it is one of the amateur's pleasures to 

 show his friends his plants on such blocks, and to explain to 

 them that such plants grow in their native wilds on branches of 

 trees. I was in company only this week with a traveller who 

 had been in Demerara, and, speaking of Orchids, he told me that 

 when a colony of white ants attack a tree they gnaw away the 

 lower part of the bark, which of course kills the tree, and on 

 that dead tree the Orchids immediately appear, and soon clothe 

 it with their foliage and blossom. He had seen many instances 

 of this remarkable fact when pushing through the uncultivated 

 forests of that part of the world. This fact is confirmed by the 

 state in which Orchids arrive in this country that have been 

 collected by botanists, and sent home. 



The branches the Orchids are attached to are always in a dead, 

 dried-up state, showing that the Orchids are not true parasites 

 like our Mistletoe, which live and thrive in the tree, but true 

 epiphytes, which grow on the tree, drawing their nourishment 

 from the moist air and the dead leaves and twigs collected to- 

 gether in the forks of the, branches : hence the ingenious culti- 

 vator places his Orchids, or at least such as have been proved to 

 thrive best that way, upon blocks of dead wood. 



Various kinds of wood have been tried for this purpose such, 

 for instance, as the hardy Acacia (Rolinia pseudo -acacia), Cork 

 branches cut into suitable lengths, Oak branches also, and large 

 branches or stems of the common Elder tree. I have placed the 

 various kinds in rotation according to what my experience as a 

 grower of Orchids for thirty years has proved their merits. 

 Excepting the Cork branches, I prefer the blocks naked that is, 

 without their bark, chiefly for the reason that the bark as it 

 decays is a harbour for woodlice, cockroaches, and other root- 

 eating insects. Having, then, procured the branches, cut them 

 into suitable lengths and thickness, according to the size of the 

 plants 5 then procuf e some copper wire of a moderate strength. 



