556 Packing of Qrchiddcea? for long Voyages. 



then the basket filled with any rough pieces. The plant is then 

 fixed in the centre; or if you have several plants of the same 

 species nursed on lumps of turf, or in moss, or in small pots, you 

 can fill your basket at once with these little fellows, and have a 

 handsome specimen immediately. If the plant is a very delicate 

 kind, instead of filling the basket entirely with peat, place an in- 

 verted flower-pot -in the centre of it, and fill the space between 

 this pot and the sides of the basket with crocks and turf in equal 

 proportions. Peat will not soon get sodden in these baskets. 

 When the basket is to be put on a flat stage, let it be set on an 

 inverted pot; in this way it is in a measure suspended in the 

 air : and, when you want to give it bottom heat, place the basket 

 on the top of a pot plunged in heat. When your plant is in 

 flower, wrap moss, paper, or some such article, round the basket, 

 and take it to the drawingroom. This will obviate the necessity 

 of ladies entering the orchidaceous house, which few of them 

 like to do, and the change will be a great benefit to your plant. 

 After unloading itself of its beauty and fragrance in the drawing- 

 room, it will begin growing when brought back to the orchidaceous 

 house with redoubled exertions. If your plants are very small, 

 do not let them flower, but pick off' the flowers as they make 

 their appearance; and mark this! if you find the plant will 

 stand this treatment without much injury, never let it rest, win- 

 ter or summer, till you have got it into a strong fine specimen ; 

 but, if you do this, you must not let it waste itself in producing 

 flowers. 



Gathering and ■packing Orchidacece for loiig Voyages. — With- 

 out detailing the various ways in which I have seen plants of this 

 tribe packed, and I believe I have seen them packed in as many 

 ways as most people, I have made up my mind that very dry 

 sawdust is the very best medium for packing them in, and the 

 larger the cases in which they are packed, the more likely they 

 are to arrive safe. The rationale of the plan appears to be, that 

 sawdust is a powerful non-conductor of heat, and resists moisture. 

 The roots and the leaves of the bulbous kinds should be cut off 

 before packing. When circumstances will admit of it, the cases 

 should not be filled at once, nor the lids put on as soon as filled ; 

 time should be allowed for any exhalations which may arise from 

 the plants to pass off", before nailing them down. Let the ten- 

 derest species be kept towards the centre of the case. The 

 effects of a vertical sun have little power on a large body of dry 

 sawdust, and I have not the least doubt, but that this material 

 is also the safest medium in which to transfer tender seeds. 



After receiving a cargo in this way, I put the plants in a 

 trough of water, and clean them from ants and other insects, 

 and all decayed matter ; leaving them, perhaps, several hours in 

 water. After cleaning them, in summer I pile them on each 



