March 17, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF XIOHTIOULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEK. 



207 



collections, remarkable for their rarity and beauty, are always 

 growing into money, so that, commercially speaking, the sinking 

 of such money is a profitable investment. 



Superiority of cultivation, then, seeing that it is about a 

 quarter of a century since the mode of growing them and classi- 

 fying them into divisions and subdivisions, became better un- 

 derstood, ougl.t to be a marked feature in their history ; for 

 there has been no want, either of men to experimentalise and 

 find out the best methods for promoting their growth and en- 

 couraging floral development, or means to carry out then* 

 views. It is very questionable, however, if the truth were 

 known, how far we have upon the whole gained in this respect. 

 Eight years ago, when the writer sojourned in the metropolis, 

 Orchids were in better condition, evincing somewhat more supe- 

 riority of culture than we can boast of at the present day ; at 

 least, judging from what was exhibited then in comparison with 

 what was exhibited last season. This is a Bomewhat bold asser- 

 tion, but it seemed to be the opinion of more than one, and of 

 some of the exhibitors themselves. There are some private 

 collections around London that are a credit both to the gentlemen 

 that own them, and to the gardeners who superintend their 

 management ; but numbers of these are holding aloof from 

 sending their plants to the exhibitions, and this branch of horti- 

 culture is not so strongly represented before the public as it 

 actually is entitled to be. 



It has been remarked with a certain degree of truth that Orchids 

 are not difficult to cultivate. This remark holds good with every- 

 thing else, only one requires to know and adopt the right method. 

 A first-rate Orchid-grower, however, must be exceedingly at- 

 tentive and vigilant, taking cognizance of their peculiar habits, 

 in order to fall upon the best plan for accelerating and consolidat- 

 ing growth ; so as, in the one instance, to make them proof 

 against disease, and in the other to promote good flower-spikes, and 

 flowers large and full of substance. This is a task far more diffi- 

 cult to accomplish than many would s-uppose, for it is one thing 

 to h.-ive a coiled ion that may be considered fairly grown, and 

 another thing to have one coining up to the superlative Btyle of 

 merit. There is the temperature best suited to the constitution 

 of the plant ; there is the material for the promotion of root- 

 action ; there is the quantity of moisture that each and all re- 

 quire, and the time wnen it should be applied — all these matters 

 demand more than a passing glance, or an off-hund dealing with, 

 if it be wished to rise beyond mediocrity ; and yet you will not 

 find half a dozen men that adopt precisely the same method, and 

 all, probably, are successful to a certain degree. 



Some, lor instance, grow Phalsenopsids on blocks of wood with- 

 out any foreign matter whatever ; others grow tliem in pots, the 

 predominating compost being charcoal and manure, which is 

 about as diverse treatment as it is possible to conceive. They 

 grow and root splendidly in the latter compost, if a little sphag- 

 num is chopped up amongst it; but it requires a skilful hand to 

 wafer them, and they mu?t not be overwatered upon any con- 

 sideration in such a compost, else the roots are presented with 

 more moisture than they can absorb ; and hence elongation 

 ceases, their pores are choked, and they gradually rot away; 

 their leaves of course suffering in proportion. But, more than 

 that, such gross feeding subjects them to the very evil which 

 was recommended to be guarded against — disease; and, when 

 once these rare and fine plants are contaminated, it requires 

 time to produce a remedial effect. But to go into this tho- 

 roughly, and discuss it as it ought to be discussed, would re- 

 quire a series of papers, for this whole Orchid-cultivation question 

 admits of a more thorough investigation than what has yet been 

 accorded it, for the sake of horticulture generally, and more 

 particularly lor the benefit of numbers who have begun founding 

 a collection, and who, feeling their way step by step, are anxious 

 to obtain reliable information in ascending the 6cale. 



There is one peculiar incident in the seeding of Orchids which 

 is sufficiently anomalous to be worthy placing on record; and 

 if ic should meet the eye of Mr. Darwin, I should be glad to 

 know if any like occurrence has come under his investigation, and 

 the conclusions deducible therefrom. There are in our collec- 

 tion a plant of Cattle} a crispa and one of Deudrobium creta- 

 ceum that produced, in each instance, abortive flowers. The 

 buds swelled and inflated themselves to a certain extent, but 

 were unable to expand their sepals and petals, and I supposed at 

 the time they would fall off and die. Not so, however. The foot- 

 stalks began to assume a more healthy green, and gradually 

 swelled and produced seed-vessels, so far as exterior appearance 

 went as perfect as those that had flowered in the regular way. 



This appeared to me all the more Btrange, for the organs of 

 fructification were enveloped all the time by these sepals and 

 petals, so that no insect or other agency could in the least affect 

 them. I cut up the Cattleya when ripe, and it was full of the 

 fine white chaff-like dust common to the whole genus. The 

 Dendrobium eretaceum pods still hang on the plant. 



Again, I have observed over and over again that flowers of an 

 imperfect character, such, for example, as those wanting a petal 

 or sepal, have a great tendency to go off to seed-pods ; for 

 Mr. Darwin correctly remarks that bo soon as a flower is fructi- 

 fied the ornamental portion of it immediately fades, and the 

 nutriment is absorbed by the organs of fructification. 



But I have also had pods without the least manipulation from 

 perfect flowers, and have tried them in various ways, in order to 

 get what I believe to be the Beed to germinate, all to no purpose. 

 Mr. Gorae, of Sandhurst, Torquay, an enthusiast in all such 

 matters, seeing a short article of mine in a previous Journal re- 

 specting the seeding of Orchids, wrote to me to know how I 

 had succeeded in my various experiments. I replied privately 

 to that note, and enclosed a packet of Odontoglossum grande, 

 which brought forth the following reply : — ■ 



" I am much obliged for your poiite note, and for the packet 

 of seed of Odontoglossum which is enclosed, It was very kind 

 of you to send it, though, after your failure, I should have had 

 little hope of succeeding. But, my dear Bir, the seed is barren. 

 On careful examination with one of Powell's microscopes, with 

 a power of 300 diameters, I cannot discover a single seed which 

 contains an embryo. There is the long, loose eeed-coat, ribbed 

 and twisted, which ought to hold a naked embryo, as a minute 

 opaque dot somewhere in its interior ; but in no single example 

 was the embryo seen, though the transparent tissue of the seed- 

 coat would readily have allowed it to be seen if present. Pro- 

 bably your plants were not properly, not really, impregnated. 

 I think Darwin has touched the real spring of the general failure 

 of. Orchids to produce seed with us. He has shown that no 

 Orchid blossom is self-impregnating, that the pollen of one 

 flower fertilises another, and that this is effected almost univer- 

 sally by means of insects, chiefly bees. But the ventilation of 

 our Orchid-houses is so managed that few flower-probing insects 

 find their way into them. I am myself only a beginner in 

 Orchid-culture, and that on a small BCale ; but for you, or any 

 other clever man who has a large supply of Orchids at command, 

 I do not doubt that a promising field of experiment is open. If 

 I had such an opportunity I would encourage the access ot bees 

 to my plants in flower by all means; and even catch bees of 

 different species — honey bees, wild bees, humble bees from the 

 garden and field — and turn them loose in the Orchid-houses. 

 Thus I think you would get many flowers impreguated and have 

 fertile seed in abundance. Veitch's successes are all hybrids ; 

 in these cases the impregnation was done by human hands, and 

 of course was effectual." 



Well, I thought this letter, which I received last October, 

 was most interesting, and, what with this and Mr. Darwin's 

 theory and experiments together, I set earnestly to work. In 

 the first place I determined to experiment upon a Phateaopsis 

 amabilis, crossed with the more delicate and pretty rosea, 

 thinking if I could but be successful it would be so much gain 

 in the right direction. I took off the hood or capsule that 

 covers the stamens— and really one cannot help wondering how 

 each component part is fitted to one another — with the point of 

 a budding-knife, and the gummy substance that holds the 

 stamens to their position in the flower (for it is only an appen- 

 dage, and can be taken off without the least scratch to the 

 column), stuck fast to my knife in the same way as I presume it 

 will stick to the insects in Java or the Phillipine Islands, and to 

 my delight I could carry it up and down the house ad libitum, 

 or could even send it with the utmost safety to your office in 

 Fleet Street, or to tho laboratories of Messrs. Darwin and G-osse, 

 so as to be fit for duty after arrival. I applied this to the 

 pistil of amabilis with much earnestness and care, and have now 

 a very fine seed-pod as the result. 



Vanda tricolor was served in the same way with Vanda 

 insignis, and with the same results; Cattleya labiata with a 

 chance flower which- came from C. crispa; Oncidium Phdlips- 

 ianum with O. leucoehilum ; and some others, all with success. 

 I was, of course, very much pleased so far, and I am very 

 anxious to know whether I will be able to make them germinate 

 That point of the experiment yet remains to be tested, and I 

 shall take an opportunity hereafter, if spared, to record the 

 results. 



