Answers to Queries. 



4-65 



" Sir, the best mode of preserving the be: Orchis, f Ophrys upjf.ro), and the Jly 

 Orchis (0. musciferaj, is as follows. They should be removed with a large 

 quantity of mould attached to their roots. They delight in a dry situation. 1 

 have had them flower freely in brick rubbish. All other sorts that I know of 

 do best in a shady situation. I am, Sir, &c. 



" W. Hirst, 



" Cheshunt, Herts. July 24, 1826." " Gardener to Jos. Batho, Esq." 



" Sir, — In compliance with the request of your correspondent, Mr. 

 Daniel Stock, respecting the bee Orchis, &c, in No III. p. 358, of your 

 excellent Magazine, I send you the following account of the method of cul- 

 tivating some of the orchideous plants, that I have tried with perfect success in 

 the nursery of my employers, Messrs. C. and J. Young. In the month of 

 April, I remove, with a moderate portion of earth, from their native habitation, the 

 following interesting and peculiarly elegant species^ — Orchis^pyramidalis ; Gymna- 

 denia conopsea; Platanthera bifolia [Lindl. in Don. Cat. ed. 11.] (butterfly) ; 

 Aceras anthropophora (green man) ; Hermiiiium monorchis (musk) ; Ophrys 

 muscifera (fly) ; O. apifera (bee) ; and Epipactis pallens. I plant them on a 

 sloping bank, composed of turfy loam and chalk, in an eastern exposure. The 

 plants thus treated, flower considerably stronger, and remain a longer lime in 

 bloom than those at Box Hill, from whence they were obtained in 1824. This 

 season they are also ripening their seeds in abundance, and I expect to have the 

 bank covered with seedling plants the ensuing spring. 1 have no doubt but the 

 remaining species that are fond of a cretaceous soil, such as Orchis hircina ; 

 O. Smithii, [Sweet in Obs. B. F. Gard. 163.] &c. ; would succeed equally well 

 with similar treatment. The common species, O. latifolia, &c, including a per- 

 fectly white variety of O. morio, excepting the green lines of the perianthium, 

 and which may be named O. morio, var. alba, found in a meadow near Epsom, 

 I remove as above, and I plant them in a mixture of turfy loam and peat, in a 

 moist, shady situation ; the success attending them has been precisely the same as 

 with the preceding. Having thus endeavoured to coincide with the wishes of 



your correspondent, and being 

 desirous of making a complete 

 collection of indigenous orchideae, 

 I should feel much obliged to 

 him, or to any of your corre- 

 spondents, who could furnish me 

 with the species not mentioned 

 above as being in my cultivation. 

 The following North American 

 species I cultivate successfully on 

 a bank of sandy loam and peat : 

 Spiranthes cernua ; Calopogon pul- 

 chellus ; Cypripedium spectabile ; 

 Liparis liliifolia ; Goodyera pubes- 

 cens. Drawings of the two last, by 

 Mr. J. Nairn, of this nursery, ac- 

 company this. {Fig. 96). (a) Good- 

 yera pubescens ; (6) Liparis liliifolia. " I am, Sir, &c. 



" George Penny." 

 " Epsom Nursery, August 29, 1826.'" 



We have seen a number of drawings by Mr. Nairn, accurately and beautifully 

 done, considering that he never had any instructions, and only occupies his 

 leisure hours in this way. — Cond. 



" Sir, — Reading your excellent Magazine early in July, I found (at page 

 358), a query from Mr. D. Stock, relative to the culture of Orchises ; and I 

 respectfully presume to offer you a short account of the treatment to which I 

 have subjected the kinds mentioned by him, and most of the other British 

 orchideae, with a very satisfactory result. Acting under the direction of my father, 



I I 4) 



