LILY OF THE VALLEY. DENDROBIUM NOBILE. 49 



Mr. Hovey said tbe impression that it requires shade, arises 

 from the fact that we have seen it grow generally in shady bor- 

 ders. The name shows that it likes moisture, but it wants dry- 

 ness also ; the leaves dry away late in the season. It is said that 

 the flowering bulbs can be distinguished by the size ; if the roots 

 are taken indiscriminately, not more than fifteen out of a hundred 

 will flower. He had put the roots in moss in a pot and placed on 

 a flue, with an inverted flower pot filled with moss over them, 

 which was removed in ten or fifteen days. These roots of Mr. 

 Calder were imported roots, in clumps, and were very beautiful ; 

 others, in single roots, were more difficult to force. Few have so 

 favorable a situation as Mr Calder. Mr. Hovey potted several 

 boxes and placed in heat, and when thej' began to grow he told 

 his gardener to carry them out, and they failed ; they must not be 

 taken from heat too soon. 



James O'Brien asked whether any soil is necessary ; he had seen 

 them in New York in sand and moss. 



Mr. Calder replied that the only soil he had used, other than 

 what came on the clumps, was a little in the box and between the 

 clumps ; it is not necessary to put in soil. The object of with- 

 holding water is to keep the blooms clean and white ; the smallest 

 quantity of water spots them. He does not give them a particle 

 of liquid manure. * 



President Strong. The lil}' of the valley will absorb a great 

 quantity of food. Mr. Calder's clumps are better than we get at 

 home. The Dutch cultivators use a great amount of cow manure. 



Mr. Calder did not think that when forcing they would take in 

 liquid manure, but they will take all you will give them while 

 forming the flower buds. 



James Cartwright, who had on exhibition an uncommonly vigor- 

 ous plant of Dendrobium nobile, said it was grown in the shade 

 among roses ; it had an abundant shower bath four or five times a 

 da}', which was the whole secret of its vigor. It was kept grow- 

 ing until October ; if it had been dried off in August the flowers 

 would have been much more abundant, — another year they will 

 be. It has a good deal of good wood and a good young growth, 

 and an abundance of flowers may be anticipated. 



Mr. Rand said that if dried off earlier it would have had ten 

 titines as much bloom ; the plant should have been covered with 



