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MOTH ORCHIDS 



IN THE MAKING 



A study of orchids in general is helpful in understanding any one 

 species of orchids. So this article proceeds, as it were, from the general 

 to the specific, treating first of orchids as a family and then concentrating 

 attention on a few favorite species of spray orchids. 



ECHIDS are herbaceous 

 perennials; that is an inter- 

 esting fundamental fact, 

 worthy of first mention 

 here. It is true that they 

 are not customarily re- 

 garded as belonging to the 

 perennial class, partly for 

 the reason that they are 

 eminently fitted, by unique- 

 ness and beauty, to constitute a class by 

 themselves. A more important point of 

 distinction is, that the majority of ordi- 

 nary perennials are more or less hardy, 

 while the majority of orchids — not all 

 of them, by any means — are tender, 

 heat-loving exotics. Nevertheless, or- 

 chids are truly and intrinsically peren- 

 nial. They are more persistently peren- 

 nial, in fact, than are many plants that 

 are invariably consid- 

 ered as members of the 

 perennial class. Indeed, 

 a few of the hardy or 

 semi-hardy orchids, 

 such as certain cypri- 

 pediums or lady's slip- 

 pers, are included in 

 some catalogues of her 

 b a c e u s perennials. 

 They are so included 

 on. account of their 

 hardiness. 



Veil of Mystery. 



Another factor that 

 has aided in keeping 

 orchids in a class by 

 themselves is the veil 

 of mystery that has 

 surrounded them. Like 

 most other widely prev- 

 alent notions or be- 

 liefs, this idea of or- 

 chids being involved in 

 mystery is founded 

 partly on real, substan- 

 tial facts. There are 

 elements of mystery in 

 the culture of all 

 plants, but especially 

 in the culture of plants 

 so peculiar as are the 

 orchids. So greatly do 

 orchids differ from 

 other families of 

 plants, and so greatly 

 do many genera of or- 

 chids differ from one 

 another, that the 

 grower who has ac- 

 quired command of the 

 principal details of or 

 chid culture is a man 

 of no meager accom- 

 plishments. No doubt, 



orchids are tenacious of life and will 

 endure a vast amount of abuse. One 

 proof of that endurance lies in the fact 

 that so many thousands of them have 

 been imported from remote countries 

 and have been reestablished so readily 

 and with so small a proportion of loss. 

 But orchids that are unnecessarily 

 abused will not bring a great deal of 

 either credit or profit to the grower. 



One Mystery Solved? 



One of the former real mysteries of 

 orchid culture was the uncertain, un- 

 even and altogether unsatisfactory ger- 

 mination of the seeds. Even expert 

 growers were puzzled and chagrined by 

 the irregularity and frequent scantiness 

 of the results they achieved in this de- 

 partment of their work. Early in the 



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Phalaenopsis Schilleriana Is One of the Finest of Spray Orchids. 



present century, however, scientific in- 

 vestigators announced that the problem 

 had been solved. They had discovered, 

 or definitely proved, they said, that the 

 presence of the proper root fungi, or 

 mycorrhizal fungi, is essential to the 

 germination of orchid seed. If a grow- 

 er has confidence in this discovery and 

 is governed accordingly, he sows the 

 seed either on the surface of the pots 

 containing the parent plants, or on finely 

 chopped sphagnum which has previously 

 been inoculated with the root fungus 

 from the species of orchid to which the 

 seed plant belonged. That, of course, is 

 a necessarily brief and inadequate state- 

 ment of a rather complicated process. 

 The aforementioned scientific investiga- 

 tors do not claim that there is anything 

 new in the mere act of sowing the seed 

 on the pots. As all 

 orchidists are well 

 aware, that was a com- 

 mon practice many 

 years ago and the good 

 results of the practice 

 were more or less 

 known, but the service 

 rendered by the fungi 

 in producing those re- 

 sults had not been 

 clearly detected. 



Friendly Tungl. 



Now that the useful- 

 ness of the right sort 

 of fungi is realized, 

 their aid can be sought 

 intelligently and suc- 

 cessfully — so the scien- 

 tists believe. But 

 meanwhile growers, re- 

 gardless of the very 

 existence of any such 

 friendly fungi, con- 

 tinue to sow the seed 

 in numerous different 

 ways — on many sorts 

 of fiber or compost, on 

 burlap stretched over 

 compost, on burlap 

 without any compost 

 at all and even on 

 rough boards — and 

 each method has its 

 champions. Who will 

 throw the next gleam 

 of light on this hazy 

 subject ? 



It may be well to 

 note here that orchids, 

 especially at the start 

 of their life, are exceed- 

 ingly fastidious about 

 the sort of fungi with 

 which thev associate. 



