September 28, 1370. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



Foremost amongst them may be named 0. maeranthum, a 

 noble species with large flowers like golden butterflies thinly 

 scattered on a spike 10 or 12 feet in length. Mr. Ward, gar- 

 dener to F. G. Wilkins, Esq., Leyton, has a fine plant of this 

 species growing in the cool Orohid house, whore the tempera- 

 ture has fallen to 35° in winter. It is suspended near the 

 roof, and is growing in the bifurcation of a stout limb of a 

 tree. 0. bifolium majus is the very reverse of this sort, it can 

 be grown in the same house suspended from the rafters in the 

 Bame way, but it is a small-growing species with spikes a foot 

 to 18 inches long, producing large bright yellow flowers marked 

 with brown on the sepals. 0. cucnllatum and varieties of this 

 species are also very small in growth ; the flowers are beauti- 

 fully marked with rose and purple, and last a long time in 

 perfection; indeed, this is a characteristic of many of the New 

 Grenadan Orchids, at least thosa of them that are brought, as 

 this one is, from the mountain ranges 7000 or 8000 feet above 

 the sea level. It also succeeds well in the coldest house. Nearly 

 every Orchid fancier grows O. Papilio and the allied species or 

 variety O. Krameri ; its flowers, perched singly on the end of 

 long slender stalks 2 or 3 feet in length, remind one of gaudy 

 foreign butterflies with outstretched wings. 



A very large proportion of Oncidiums succeed well in the 

 Cattleya or Brazilian house — that is, with a night temperature 

 of from 50° to 55° in winter and from 60° to 65° in summer, 

 rising from 5° to 10° higher in the day. During a period of at 

 least three months in summer no artificial heat is needed in 

 the Cattleya house. O. ampliatum majus is one of the very 

 finest of the species; it produces long branching spikes of 

 flowers in May and June, which are of large size and produced 

 in abundance. It is well known to frequenters of the early 

 exhibitions in London, as it is almost indispensable in a col- 



lection. Another strong point in its favour is the fact that it 

 is very easily grown in pots half filled with clean potsherds 

 and then a layer half an inch thick of clean fresh sphagnum 

 moss, then a compost of tough fibrous peat, chopped sphag- 

 num, and potsherds in equal proportions. The plant3 require 



