46 



Garden and Forest.' 



[Number 414. 



themselves to the changed conditions under which they 

 are placed, and respond to a rational system of treat- 

 ment. It often puzzles the grower to know what to do with 

 a plant that has apparently made its growth for the season 

 early in the fall months and then makes another start, the 

 later growth having to finish up during our winter months 

 under adverse conditions as to light and air, the two most 

 potent factors after warmth and moisture. This is frequently 

 the case with newly established plants which have not quite 

 adapted themselves to the changed seasons. Sometimes it 

 occurs in the case of well-grown plants that have been in a 

 collection, perhaps, for years. We have come to the conclu- 

 sion that to try and retard this tendency by keeping the 

 plants overdry at the roots is to cripple seriously latent 

 energies ; to place them in a warmer temperature with 

 more moisture to encourage this growth results in throwing 

 the whole mechanism of the plant out of gear. We have 

 found it best to ignore the fact that anything abnormal is going 

 on and to let nature rectify its own error, if error it be. Often 

 this seems to be merely a safety valve for the escape of a 

 superabundance of vigor, for, excepting the newly established 

 plants, this peculiarity is confined to plants that are the most 

 robust. 



European cultivators, to whom we have been indebted 

 hitherto for our works of reference on this subject, have laid 

 great stress on the ripening up of growths by withholding 

 moisture, but, aside from the fact that this system is not prac- 

 ticable here, owing to the greater amount of sun we get and 

 the much larger amount of artificial heat required to maintain 

 the proper temperature for the plants. All these conditions 

 tend to exhaust the store of moisture, which in the case of a 

 Cattleya bulb, whether old or new, averages over ninety per 

 cent. Aside from these facts, the most advanced cultivators 

 in Europe are beginning to see the fallacy of this system and 

 to teach a more rational treatment. 



It is also easily seen by the interested student that there are 

 times when a plant is putting forth new efforts in the way of a 

 bunch of young live roots from the base of the last-made 

 growth. Often this is by way of fortifying itself for the crown- 

 ing effort of producing flowers, and sometimes of recuperation 

 afterward. In either case it will be found good practice to take 

 advantage of these signs and to give any encouragement pos- 

 sible, such as new material and a larger pot if this is deemed 

 necessary, remembering that decayed inert matter about 

 epiphytal Orchids is death to roots, whether young or old. 

 Care should be taken to remove every particle of decay by 

 directing a jet of water on the mass before placing in new 

 material. It would have been considered bad treatment by 

 the authors of the reference-books to repot a Cattleya at the 

 approach of the dull winter months, but it will be found here 

 in practice that any day of the year is' a good time, provided 

 the plant shows signs of renewed activity at the roots, a sure 

 index that will never betray either the plant or the cultivator. 



Cypripediums are to be regarded more as terrestrial plants. 

 They will take water freely all the year, and may be repotted 

 at almost any time. This is a good time, as the roots are, for 

 the most part, dormant, or have but few growing tips, and 

 these are not so easily injured as the brittle white roots of the 

 epiphytes. If a Cypripedium holds tenaciously to the pot in 

 which it is, as is often the case with older plants of C. insigne 

 and its hybrids, it is well to soak the roots in water the 

 day before potting, and, if it is necessary, to break the pot to 

 liberate the roots. The broken parts will easily separate 

 when charged with moisture, and this is true of Cattleyas and 

 other genera. It is not economical to spare the pot when the 

 contents represent, possibly, as many dollars as the pot does 

 cents. For such Orchids as require a quantity of water at all 

 seasons it is safe to use sphagnum-moss liberally in the potting 

 material. Cypripediums and Odontoglossums belong to this 

 class. Dendrobiums, we find, do well in moss alone, for it 

 can be easily washed out each year and new living moss added, 

 but for Cattleyas we have for several years used no moss, and 

 only the best grade of Osmunda-root. The moss, we find, 

 only hastens the decay of the fibre, and when the latter is used 

 alone there is no danger from overwatering, and the compost 

 is well aerated at all times, a condition favorable to the devel- 

 opment of good live roots, apparently the basis of vigor and 

 success. 



Much can be done to render the atmosphere agreeable to 

 the occupants of our plant houses besides the ordinary appli- 

 cations of moisture on the paths. An occasional damping 

 down with some liquid stimulant is desirable, and we have 

 found that a minute proportion of sulphate of ammonia in the 

 water has a beneficial effect, giving a healthy green color to 

 the foliage. A quantity of Oak leaves brought in twice a year 



and placed under the centre benches helps to give off ammonia. 

 These should be well treated with air-slacked lime to prevent 

 snails and other insects from coming forth, but I am told that 

 the lime would help to impoverish the supply of carbonic acid 

 gas, and in this way not be a benefit, although liberating the 

 ammonia contained in the decaying leaves. Fresh air, as often 

 as available, is one of the chief essentials to keeping a healthy 

 atmosphere. This is not easy when the temperature is far 

 below the freezing point outdoors, but a system of ventilators 

 near the heating pipes makes it easy to warm the air as it 

 comes into the house. Even in hot weather this is the better 

 way to change the air in preference to opening wide the top 

 ventilators and letting out all of the carefully balanced mois- 

 ture-laden atmosphere we have been at so much trouble to 

 prepare. Greenhouses are seldom constructed with openings 

 in the brick-work for ventilation, but this is most essential for 

 successful culture and should be more insisted upon than it is. 

 Water also that is taken from the supply-pipes direct is far too 

 cold in winter for spraying or watering. Here it averages 

 forty-five degrees in the winter months, and it is not well to 

 use it for spraying a house at from seventy to eighty degrees. 

 We have in part overcome this difficulty by placing on the 

 warmest flow-pipes a cylinder holding sixty gallons, and 

 taking the water from this to the warm houses. The water is 

 let in at the base of the cylinder and out at the top. and in this 

 way we secure a supply of tepid water adequate to our needs 

 at all times when fire heat is used. 



White scale is the worst enemy the Orchid grower has to 

 contend with ; it comes on the plants as they are received from 

 the woods, and increases at a rapid rate, but a fine jet of water, 

 as from theStott sprayer, will, it used with a good force, effec- 

 tually rid the plants of this pest, and without the least injury 

 to them. 



In successful plant-culture it is the (rifles that tell. Some- 

 times they are inappreciable to the cultivator himself and a 

 puzzle to others, but more often they are wholly at the will of 

 the careful student who avails himself of the signs given by 

 the plants themselves. A system that is haphazard is likely to 

 give results that correspond. 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. 0. Orfiet. 



Greenhouse Notes. 



WHILE the common practice of banking flowering and 

 foliage plants in the conservatory for effect may be agree- 

 able from one point of observation, and maybe excused when 

 following architectural lines, it is more advisable generally to 

 show as much as possible the individual character of the 

 plants. Lately I have seen some very fine trained standard 

 plants effectively used in this way. One of these, Adhatoda 

 cydonioefolia, I found in the greenhouses belonging to Mrs. 

 Pauline Durant, of Wellesley. This elegant rafter-plant, allied 

 to the Juslicias, and belonging to the Acanthaceae, was intro- 

 duced from Brazil in 1855. It is naturally of straggling growth, 

 and in forming a standard one stout stem had been carried 

 upward six feet and attached to a strong support. From a 

 head made the branches diverged in all directions, arching 

 outward and downward, some of them reaching the ground, 

 forming a perfect pyramid. Nothing more beautiful than this 

 plant in flower can be imagined, with bunches of large labiate 

 pink-colored flowers borne on the tips of the branches. It is 

 an easy plant to grow, propagating freely from cuttings in an 

 ordinary propagating-bed, or they may be put in pots of half 

 light loam and sand and stood in a warm shady corner of the 

 greenhouse. Although usually recommended the treatment 

 accorded tropical plants, they will grow well out-of-doors in 

 summer, and will bloom quite freely in December in a green- 

 house of intermediate temperature. 



Streptosolon Jamesoni is another plant which by careful 

 training can be grown into a handsome standard. It grows 

 rapidly when young, and training must begin as soon as the 

 plant is a few inches high, since it branches freely and would 

 soon be out of hand for training purposes. At Mr. H. H. 

 Hunnewell's place at Wellesley there is now a beautiful speci- 

 men in bloom, with a clear stem of about four feet, and above 

 this an unevenly globular head of the same diameter. Some 

 branches are longer than others, and some drooping, with just 

 enough variation in length to offset an otherwise formally 

 trimmed appearance. The flowers are borne in loose terminal 

 corymbs at the ends of the branches ; they are narrowly cam- 

 panulate, with an irregularly rotate limb of brilliant orange- 

 color. A second crop of flowers follows closely on the first, 

 from laterals developed while the first crop is open, and with 

 a little trimming away of dead flowers the plant remains fairly 

 effective during the remainder of the winter. The best results 

 are obtained by continuous pot-culture. Those we have 



