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SELECT ORCHIDS IN CULTIVATION. 



E next proceed to give a popular description of the 

 best Orchidaceous plants now cultivated in our 

 gardens. The distinctive features of each genus 

 are first given, and these are followed by an account of the 

 mode of treatment which we have found, after many years, 

 to be best adapted to their successful cultivation, and supple- 

 mented by descriptions of the choicer species and varieties. 

 The genera and species are arranged in alphabetical order 

 for facility of reference. 



AciNETA, Lindlcij. 



{Tribe Vandese, suhtribe Stanhopiese.) 

 Epiphytal plants of stout habit, bearing showy flowers in 

 drooping racemes from the base of the pseudobulbs. They 

 are related to Peristeria, and distinguished by their broad and 

 finally spreading sepals, and the narrowly margined claw of 

 the lip, which has a concave inflexed middle lobe, by a longish 

 column, and by the oblong stalks of the two pollen-masses 

 becoming thickened with a gland at the base. About eight 

 species are known, natives of Tropical America and Mexico. 



Culture. — These plants should be grown in baskets, as 

 their flower spikes, which invariably take a downward direc- 

 tion, spring from the base of the pseudobulbs. They are all 

 evergreen, with short pseudobulbs, and nervose leaves, about 

 a foot high. They are of easy culture in a mixture of moss 

 and peat ; and a liberal supply of water at the roots is 

 necessary during their period of growth, but during their 

 resting period less will suffice. They will all succeed in 

 either the East Indian or Cattleya house, suspended from 

 the roof ; and all of them may be propagated by separating 

 the pseudobulbs when fully matured. In order that the 



