TROPICAL ORCIIIDACE^. 811 



at the Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh and Glasgow, 

 and also at the Experimental Garden of the Caledonian 

 Horticultural Society, Edinburgh; and the practices 

 followed in these establishments are here recommended. 

 In some private gardens, likewise, such epiphytes are 

 grown with great success; particularly at Dalkeith 

 Park, under Mr. Mackintosh, and Bothwell Castle, 

 under Mr. Turnbull. It has now been fully ascertained 

 by extensive experience, that their cultivation is not 

 nearly so difficult as was formerly supposed. When 

 pots or shallow pans are used, they should be well fur- 

 nished at bottom with shivers, or broken bricks or tiles, 

 to drain off superfluous moisture, and then filled up with 

 oblong pieces of spongy peat, between t\yo and three 

 inches in length, and more than an inch in breadth and 

 depth. Chips of rotten sticks, and tufts of decayed 

 hypnum or sphagnum, and the mixture of fibrous roots 

 which may be grubbed up in any wood having a light 

 or sandy soil, may often be used with advantage, for 

 the growth of Dendrobiums, and for all wicker baskets 

 suspended by wires from the rafters, where peat would 

 be apt to get too dry and hard. Some kinds are the 

 better for being fostered with the bottom-heat of a tan- 

 bed. The roots are generally thrown out near the sur- 

 face: a principal point in the culture consists in en- 

 couraging the development of these; the compost of 

 peat and other substances, should therefore be raised 

 several inches above the margin of the pot, so that the 

 superficial roots may have free scope. It is not neces- 

 sary that the peat used should he dried; in general it 

 is found to answer best when it is rather soft and spongy. 

 When the peat is dry, it is difficult to get wooden-pegs 

 to penetrate without breaking the peat, particularly for 



