March 24, 1863.] 



JOURNAL OE HJRTICCJLTDRE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



217 



Day 



Day 



ol' 



of 



M'nth 



Week 



24 



Tu 



25 



W 



26 



Th 



27 



F 



28 



S 



29 



Scn 



30 



M 



MARCH 24-30, 1803. 



H. Repton died, 1S18. G. 

 Lady D. La.vson died, 1747. B. 

 Gesner born, 1516. B. 

 Golden Saxifrage flowers. 

 Chickweed flowers. 

 Falm Sunday. 

 Elsholtiusdied, 1088. B. 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Weather near London in 1862. 



Barometer. 



29.542-21)454 

 29.472-29.436 

 29.500-29.369 

 29.394—29.213 

 29.1S2-29.I15 

 29.543-29.192 

 29.32t-29.2SS 



Tbermom. 



Wind. 



Rain in 

 Inches. 



degrees. 







65—39 



S. 



.02 



63-40 



S.W. 



.08 



56-10 



N.E. 



.10 



60-43 



E. 



.IS 



51-39 



N.E. 



— 



51—38 



N.E. 



— 



59-41 



W. 



.13 



Sun 

 Rises. 



m. h 



57af5 



Moon 

 Sun | Risen 

 Set?, and Sets 



Moon's 

 Age. 



m. h 

 17af6 



m. b. 

 morn. 

 15 i 



5 

 6 



7 



D 



9 

 1(1 

 11 



Clock ' 



before Day of 

 Sun. Year. 



ra. s. 



30 



6 11 



5 53 



5 35 



5 16 



4 58 



4 39 



83 



84 



86 



87 



Meteorology op the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations daring the last thirty-six years, the average highest and lowest 

 temperatures of these darsare 51.9° and 33 6° respectively. The greatest heat, 75°, occurred on the 27th, in 1830 ; and the lowest coid, 14", 

 on the 25th, in 1850. During the period 101 days were fine, and on 91 rain fell. 



ORCHID IMPREGNATION. 



OWE Mr. James An- 

 derson the correction 

 of a misstatement ; 

 and as he has repro- 

 duced my letter in 

 which the mistake 

 was made, I will cor- 

 rect myself in your 

 pages. I ought to 

 have done so to himself pri- 

 vately, but I was not aware 

 that he was so interested in the 

 suggestion as he seems to have 

 been. 



The seed of Odontoglossum which he was so polite as 

 to send me was not all barren. Some time after I had 

 written to him the remarks which he quotes I thought 

 I would institute a more prolonged and careful micro- 

 scopical examination ; and the result was that I found a 

 few seeds — perhaps one in five hundred — in which the 

 opaque embryo was clearly discernible in the midst of 

 the twisted, netted, loose seed-coat. I therefore deter- 

 mined to sow it. In doing this I adopted the plan re- 

 commended by Mr. Beaton in page 61 of The Journal 

 of Horticulture for 1862 — in which the mode of dis- 

 persing the dustlike seeds by floating them on water, 

 which is then let slowly off at the pot-bottom, leaving 

 the seed adhering to the charcoal, peat, and crocks — 

 struck me as beautifully ingenious, simple, and effective. 

 This, then, I did ; and the pot, standing in a saucer of 

 water daily replenished and covered by a square of glass 

 slightly tilted, has remained from last October till now, 

 in shade close to the hot-water pipes in the Orchid-house. 

 Curiosity led me to examine the condition of the pot 

 and its contents often ; and the seed had not been sown 

 long before I could readily discern, by the aid of a 

 pocket-lens, the fertile seeds. These manifestly swelled 

 and became of a tender green hue ; and as the thin empty 

 membrane of the numerous barren seeds gradually decayed 

 away, the fertile ones were the more distinctly seen, es- 

 pecially on the black ground of the bits of charcoal. I 

 presumed they were going to germinate ; but one by one 

 they disappeared, and for some time past I have not been 

 able, with the closest scrutiny, to detect a single seed. 



With regard to my suggestion of encouraging the access 

 of bees to Orchid-houses I will add a word. While I 

 still believe it would be found successful in securing the 

 formation of ripe seed by many species that are now 

 unfertile with us, I perceive a strong objection to the 

 practice. It is known that the blossoms wither and die 

 within a few hours after impregnation ; and as this, under 

 the free action of insects, would take place almost im- 

 mediately after they had expanded, our magnificent spikes 

 of flowers, which now adorn the house and fill it with 

 perfume and loveliness for four, six, or eight weeks to- 

 gether, would scarcely last so many days. Only, there- 

 fore, in a few cases, in which the obtaining of available 

 seed would be of superior importance to the preservation 

 No. 101.— Vol. IV.. New Semes. 



of the bloom, would the free introduction of insects be 

 proper. Yet, if once the raising of Orchids from seed 

 could be depended upon as of ordinal'}' plants, I cannot 

 but think that it would soon become of mercantile im- 

 portance as a source of obtaining specimens far more 

 prolific than those on which we at present depend— viz., 

 the importation of foreign specimens, and the subdivision 

 of such as are in cultivation. 



Moreover, as Orchids seem peculiarly liable to variation 

 in the size, colour, and number of their flowers, the raising 

 of them from seed on a large scale might reasonably be 

 expected to yield a multitude of startling novelties, even 

 in those species which, from long cultivation with us and 

 wide dissemination (chiefly, however, by repeated fission 

 of the same original), we are accustomed to consider as 

 sufficiently familiar. 



The desire to cultivate these most lovely plants is no- 

 toriously increasing, and would spread very rapidly but 

 for the barrier presented by the high prices demanded 

 for them. A great reduction in price would doubtless 

 be the immediate result of an extensive and general pro- 

 duction of seedlings. The little plants at two or three 

 years old would be eagerly bought-up if once in the 

 market, and grown on by many a charmed amateur, who 

 would not venture upon the purchase of established plants 

 ready to flower, such as are alone to be bought at. our 

 nurseries as yet. Then the interest attaching to the 

 lengthening of the rhizome, the successive formation of 

 larger and yet larger bulbs, the peculiarities of cultiva- 

 tion under such skilful teachers as Appleby and Williams, 

 the watching for the development of flowers, would keep 

 expectation alive ; till at length the peeping-forth of the 

 flower-sheath from some plump bulb of Cattleya or Laelia, 

 the gradual rising of the dark bud within seen against 

 the light, its protrusion, and the expansion of the gorgeous 

 glorious blossom, would be confessed an ample repay- 

 ment for all the anxiety, all the expense, all the labour. 

 Surely there is a fortune to be made by some young 

 nurseryman who will lay himself out for raising Orchid 

 seedlings, or I am much mistaken. — P. H. Gosse, Tor- 

 quay. 



THE EOTAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY'S 

 SECOND SPRING SHOW. 



A frosty morning, a dense gloom hanging over the 

 metropolis in the forenoon, and a chill}' north-east wind 

 for the remainder of the day, were circumstances by no 

 means likely to be conducive to a large attendance of 

 visitors ; still the muster, especially of ladies, was very 

 good, and, notwithstanding the cold and draughty place 

 in which the Show was held, so great was the interest 

 manifested in the flowers exhibited, that it was frequently 

 a matter of difficulty to approach them. 



Camellias and Hyacinths constituted the most pro- 

 minent objects in the Show, but the former were not 

 brought forward in such numbers as might have been 

 expected. 



In Camellias, a special prize was offered for the three 

 No. 756.— Vol. XXIX, Old Series. 



