CHAP. V. ORNAMENTAL TREES, SHRUBS, ETC. 361 



can ever reach them is the one best adapted to them. They 

 live, it is true, in the shade cast by the foliage of the trees on 

 which they are suspended, or beneath which they grow ; but that 

 foliage is not altogether and at all times impervious to the rays 

 of the sun ; and, moreover, when the trees lose their leaves during 

 the Cold months the plants must needs be subject to a very con- 

 siderable exposure to full sunshine. This would have the effect 

 of ripening their wood, and thus causing them to bloom. It 

 becomes a question, then, whether there be not those which it 

 would be desirable to remove from the Betel-house and subject 

 to the full influence of the sun during at least some portion of 

 the Cold season. The success that has already resulted from 

 growing them in Betel-houses is no doubt to be attributed to the 

 glinting and subdued light of the sun that falls upon them there, 

 so similar to that shed through foliage upon them in their state 

 of nature during the larger part of the year. 



It may, however, be urged that some of the trees in the 

 junguls where Orchids are found have dense foliage, which is not 

 deciduous, and that beneath them the plants can receive little 

 or no sunshine. This may be true of some species, and it must 

 be left in great part to cultivation to discover which, for unfor- 

 tunately upon this point neither collectors nor writers supply 

 any information ; and little more is known than just where they 

 are brought from. 



The following directions for propagating them, equally appli- 

 cable here as elsewhere, are given by Mr. B. S. Williams in his 

 work, ' The Orchid Grower's Manual ' : 



" i. Some are easily increased by dividing them into pieces, or 

 by cutting the old pseudo-bulbs from the plants after the latter 

 have done flowering. Such plants as Dendrobium are increased in 

 this way. The best time for this is just as they begin to grow, or 

 when they are at rest. They should be cut through with a sharp 

 knife between the pseudo-bulbs, being careful not to harm the 

 roots. Each piece should have some roots attached to it. They 

 should he parted and potted, and receive no water till they have 

 begun to grow. 

 " ii. Dendrobium nobile, D. Pierardii, &c., are propagated : 



"1. By bending the old pseudo-bulb round the basket or pot in 

 which they are growing. 



" 2. By cutting old flowering-bulbs away from the plant ; laying 

 them on damp moss, and, when they make roots, potting. 



