PHAL^NOPSIS SCIIILLERIANA. 83 



Amateui's who have but one house do uot see the reasou why they 

 cannot grow plants as well as anybody. The secret of Mr. Rand's 

 success is in gradually introducing the plants to heat. If too 

 much heat is given at first the flowers will be small. These are 

 principles underlying all the operations of gardening, and if we 

 neglect them we shall fail of success. All forcing must be done 

 gradually ; the increase of temperature should be like the increase 

 of temperature in spring, and if we examine the table in " The 

 Garden Almanac," of the temperature of every day in the year, we 

 shall see how very gradual this increase is up to the period of mid- 

 summer, and how equally gradual is the fall to midwinter. We 

 must imitate this if we would not fail. We can cause melon seed 

 to germinate in five days, or we can spread out the same amount 

 of heat over ten days, or we can get a growth of cress in twenty- 

 four hours, as Mr. Cruickshanks recently told us he had done, but 

 the best results will be obtained by closely'' following nature. 



Mr. Eand called attention to a plant of Plmloinopsis Scliil- 

 leriana exhibited by him, one of the rarest and most costly 

 orchids. It bore a fine spike of flowers, in shape resembling 

 butterflies (whence the generic name), and of a delicate lilac or 

 peach-bloom color. The genus includes eight or ten species, 

 among which are amabilis, grandiflora, grandijlora aiirea, rosea^ 

 Lowii, Luddemanniana, etc., and is divided into two classes, the 

 large and the small flowered. The leaves of the species exhibited 

 are beautifully variegated with bars or spots of green and white, 

 the under side being of a dark purple. This was the first orchid, 

 with variegated foliage, known, except Cypripedium barbatum, 

 and is the only epiphytal orchid combining beauty of foliage with 

 beauty of flower. It makes two leaves a year ; difterent plants 

 vary in the marking of the leaves, and in purchasing a plant atten- 

 tion should be given to this point as well as to the flowers. The 

 flower stem shoots up rapidl^^ from the base of the plant. The 

 plant shown is the first that has flowered in New England, but 

 Gen. Rathbone, of Alban}^ has a plant five years old, with leaves 

 nearly a foot long, and which had, at one time, a hundred and 

 eightj'-two flowers. It is a native of Java and Manilla, and not 

 susceptible of cool cultivation. Many orchids, especially the 

 Phaloenopsids, keep on developing new branches from the flower 

 stem, but the ScJiiUeriana is an exception. It is very difficult to 



