410 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
RAISING ORCHIDS FROM SEED. 
THE interesting account given on page 18 of different methods of raising 
seedlings has suggested a few comments thereon that may be of interest 
to readers of the OrRcHID REVIEW. 
The charge was once made, and much discussed, that gardeners were 
empiricists, or rather, that their methods were empirical, but it would seem 
that the operators in raising Orchids from seed are each obliged to 
experiment along certain lines, finding out the methods best suited to their 
conditions, and follow it, and even when one has attained to a maximum of 
success in a few instances, the same treatment applied to other trials does 
not always seem to succeed. In regard to suitable substances to sow the 
seeds upon there is much difference of opinion. We have tried all that 
suggested’ themselves, from a porous brick to a sponge, all of which were 
failures, because of the rapidity with which they were coated with low forms 
of vegetable life, derived from the water, and which surely swamped the 
seeds before they were large enough to make a struggle for life, or even gain 
a foothold. | 
Of all materials tried, there is none so good as the brown, fibrous roots of 
the Osmunda, that is used entirely in the United States for the culture of 
epiphytal Orchids. A material, exactly similar to it in texture we used to 
get in County Cavan, when living in Ireland, is the mats of fibrous roots of 
Polypodium vulgare, as it was torn from the oak trees in that climate, 
where it rained, seemingly, every day in the year. We do not tear the 
material apart before using, but chop it in cubes or triangles, to fit round 
the plant when potting, and it resembles a cross section of a tree fern some- 
what, though not nearly as hard or firm, as it is easily compressed, and 
forms an ideal seed bed. Care is taken to soak the plant well before sowing 
the seeds, the testa of which seems to be endowed with the property of 
adhering to the first moist surface it comes in contact with, and after this 
adherence by first intent, they are not easily washed off. _ We are careful 
in watering for the first time or two, and generally use a fine spray, which 
secures the seeds among the root fibres, so that afterwards water is given 
‘with a hose direct: from the water main or from the spout of a water pot. 
Wwe experimented for some time to find a simple and effective way to 
sow Orchid seeds, and have settled down some time ago to a sheet of 
writing paper folded in half, to form a chute to blow the seeds from on to 
the prepared and moistened surface. The last seeds left in the paper are 
always the best, owing to their greater specific gravity. We have also 
given up putting all our eggs in. one receptacle. From sowing on large 
plants the whole of one cross, we have got down to sowing on several pots, 
themselves containing seedlings in about four inch size. Sometimes all 
