86 Ladies' Slippers. 



mand for the purpose, it is but seldom any of them are seen at 

 all, or if seen are far from presenting such an appearance of 

 health, and vigour, and beauty, as they are described as pre- 

 senting when found growing wild. I wish to speak with all 

 possible modesty on this subject; but having something to 

 communicate, I shall endeavour to combine the results of 

 experience with the results of thought in offering a code for 

 the management of these rare plants. The first new light that 

 dawned upon me in connection with this subject came from a 

 collection of hardy orchids, that had been obtained with great 

 care, and were planted out in a border consisting of a mixture 

 of peat, leaf-mould, loam, and nodules of chalk. They had the 

 usual care, and made the usual return, some doing well, but the 

 majority making but a sorry figure. Still the collection was 

 kept up by supplying with new plants the places of those that 

 perished - and in due time I was laid by through a long and 

 severe attack of tic, and as the collection of hardy orchids was 

 looked upon with contempt by all in the place except myself,, 

 the bed became a mass of weeds ; and though it was scarcely 

 possible to find the places of any of them by their leaves, 

 which were mixed with much rough herbage, their flowers sur- 

 passed in strength, and abundance, and beauty, everything of 

 the kind I had ever seen before. I began to reflect upon this, 

 and soon came to the conclusion that as they invariably grow 

 amongst grasses, sedges, patches of Narthecium, etc., etc., in 

 their native wilds, so, when brought into the garden, they 

 should be similarly accompanied. No doubt our customary 

 mode of keeping the beds clean exposes these plants to an undue 

 amount of evaporation, which is exhaustive to them, and 

 deprives them of a share in that condensation of dew which 

 goes on all night long where innumerable living vegetable 

 sprays are associated together, each spray distilling its nutrient 

 drop from the generous atmosphere. I thenceforth sought for 

 suitable plants to " surface " the beds where the orchids were 

 planted, and I never found any to surpass Festuca ovina, which 

 rejoices in the same soil as an orchid bed should consist of, and 

 is both elegant, appropriate, and marvellously active in the con- 

 densation of dew and its conveyance to the earth by means of 

 its wiry leaves ; equally useful for small growing kinds, such as 

 Gymnadenia, Ophrys, Habenaria, etc., etc., is the neat mossy 

 herbage of Spergulasaginoides, or of Saxlfraga hgjmoides ; and 

 to make an end of this part of the disquisition, it may be said 

 that hardy orchids should always be grown in the midst of 

 herbage of some sort, and the best way to accomplish it is to 

 select plants that are suitable in habit, and at the same time 

 worthy to be associated with such beautiful subjects. Shade, 

 moisture, and protection in winter, are points of some impor- 



