PEOPAGATION. 75 



tive to orchideous plants, though sometimes the green fly will 

 attack the young leaves and flowering-shoots. They are, however, 

 easily got rid/ of by tobacco smoke ; only be careful in burning 

 it that it never burst out into a flame. 



PEOPAGATION. My essay on the points of culture would 

 scarcely be complete without a few words on how to propagate 

 them. The epiphytal species may be increased by passing a 

 knife through the rhizoma, or rootstock. At the base of each 

 leaf or pseudo-bulb there is generally an incipient bud ; this bud, 

 when the rhizoma is cut in two, will swell, and finally produce 

 a shoot. The cut may be left where it is till the first pseudo- 

 bulb is perfected ; then, at the time of potting, the cut part with 

 its new young shoot may be separated from the parent plant and 

 potted in the usual way. Terrestrial Orchids are of two kinds 

 namely, such as are herbaceous, as, for instance, the Cypripe- 

 diums, and such as are bulbous like the Bletia. The first may 

 be divided into moderate-sized sections, and thus make good 

 plants at once. When potted, the second may be increased by 

 detaching at potting time one or more small tubers, potting these 

 into small pots for a season, and increasing the size of the pota 

 year by year as they advance in size. 



