STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
The flower-bearing bulb deceases from exhaustion of its 
substance, shrivels, turns brown, and begins to decay, while 
the other continues slowly but steadily to go on increasing, 
bearing in its bosom the embryo flower-stem and foliage 
which are to appear the following year. Another tiny bulb 
is also preparing in like manner, attached by a slender 
fleshy cord to its companion. Thus from year to year the 
process goes on, each one taking the place of its predecessor 
after its office has been fulfilled. 
This singular mode of reproduction seems to supersede 
the necessity for the development of seed as in other flower- 
ing plants; nor is it so common to find seedlings of the 
Orchids springing up round the parent plant, as in the case 
of other flowers. 
The reason why so few amateur florists succeed in trans- 
planting the native Orchids into their gardens lies in the 
want of due care in taking them up. The life of the plant 
for the following season being contained in the new forming 
tuber, if this be in the least injured the chance of another 
flower in the future is at an end. The succulent tender 
roots are easily broken or wounded, and these strike rather 
deep down in the soil and must be taken up uninjured, 
with a good portion of the mould, or there is small chance 
of life for the plant. Nor will the Orchis thrive in common 
earth; it requires fibrous peaty soil, moisture, and some 
shade, with the warmth that arises from the moist soil and 
shelter of the surrounding herbage. They all thrive best in 
the conservatory or greenhouse. 
GOLDEN DoppER—Cuscuta Gronovii (Willd.). 
This singular parasitical plant occurs on the rocky shores 
of our inland lakes. There seem to be two species: one 
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