142 Treatment of Newly-Impoi'tcd Orchids. 



the plants should be carefully sponged to remove scale, with which orchids 

 are much infected. All withered, decayed, and dead roots and pseudo-bulbs 

 should be removed with a sharp knife. Where large plants are received, 

 they are often encumbered with masses of long tangled roots : these 

 should be carefully disentangled by hand, and the dead portions removed : 

 care being taken not to bruise the living parts or the young spongioles 

 which often shoot out from old roots. 



Care must also be taken not to injure the eyes which may have devel- 

 oped at the base of the last year's bulbs, or to bruise any tender foliage. 



The living roots of orchids are green within. As soon as they die, they 

 become soft, and the thread (so to speak) running through the middle 

 grows hard and woody : thus it is easy to tell what portions should be 

 removed. Any roots entirely dead should be cut off close to the base of 

 the pseudo-bulbs. 



Where the plants are very large, they may often be divided to advantage ; 

 but it is not best to attempt this before they show signs of growth. Should 

 the plants, however, be so large as to be unmanageable, and the future 

 eyes be developed, it may be well to divide into as many plants as there 

 are eyes. This, however, will be seldom done by the amateur, — for it is his 

 object to have large and fine specimens, — but must be resorted to by florists 

 who wish a stock for sale. 



The plants obtained from florists are generally so small, that a growth 

 of a dozen years is necessary to make a specimen ; and the flower of 

 a small plant gives but little idea of the magnificent eflect produced by a 

 specimen. 



It not unfrequently happens that the upper part of a pseudo-bulb is 

 decayed, while the lower is sound, and has healthy eyes at the base. In 

 this case, the diseased portions may be cut away without injury to the plant ; 

 and frequently the shoots developed from a plant thus treated are stronger 

 and more healthy than those from sound bulbs. 



It is not necessary that the pseudo-bulbs should have leaves ; these are 

 frequently lost in importation : and, if the bulb is ripe, the health of the plant, 

 or its power to produce eyes, is not visibly affected. All bulbs, ho\\ever, 

 which are alive and sound, should be preserved, as they are most necessary 

 to the plant 



