The Nature of Orchids 



It used to be held that epiphytal orchids take 

 no sustenance from the material in which they are 

 placed, whatever it be. Closer experience does not 

 support this extreme view, and Belgian growers reject 

 it with emphasis, asserting that the terre de bruyere 

 (oak-leaf mould), which they prefer, is actually food 

 for the plants. I deal with the new treatment of 

 orchids, discovered by Belgian ingenuity a very 

 few years ago, in its place; assuredly it is not to 

 be overlooked. But if plants grow more strongly 

 in terre de bruyere, that does not prove that they 

 draw nourishment from it, beyond the gases and 

 exhalations which they draw likewise from peat, 

 though in less quantity. The fact may be due to 

 other rules of the new system. Species which have 

 large roots will do equally well, not to say better, 

 without any kind of potting stuff, if they be kept 

 sufficiently damp. I grow Oncidium crispum, for 

 instance, One. Forbesi, and others, on bare tiles ; but 

 this is a practice to be followed only by one who can 

 feel sure that the watering will never be overlooked. 

 Odontoglots so treated would perish gradually, but 

 not because they would miss the sustenance of peat 

 or terre de bruyere. The reason they would perish 

 is that their roots, so much more slender and 

 delicate, could not be kept moist that is to 

 say, it would be possible, no doubt, but by an 



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