Th OR etcr vy Tew: 
VoL. XIV.] MARCH, 1906. {No. 159. 
ORCHID-GROWING IN THE TROPICS. 
{he following article by the late Mr. E. S. Rand, of Para, which 
appeared in the Proceedings of the New York Horticultural Society, contains 
some interesting information respecting the Orchids of the Upper Amazon, 
hence its reproduction in our pages.—ED.]} 
The culture of Orchids, often attended with so many obstacles in 
temperate regions, presents little or no difficulty in the Tropics. When 
after voyaging for some years on the Amazon, from Para to Pebas, in Peru, 
a distance of some 2000 miles, and seeing Orchids in their habitats, I 
decided to remain permanently in Para, I soon had a small collection of the 
more common Amazonian Orchids, such as many species of Catasetums, 
Gongoras, Rodri Epidend Oncidiums, Galeandras, Tricho- 
centrum atkoparpuiteitn; Staahopel eburnea, and Cattleya superba, 
Eldorado, Wallisii, and luteola. These plants, although coming from 
regions hundreds of miles removed, all flourished under the same treat- 
ment. Those of which I had plenty were simply wired on to the trunks 
and branches of the Orange and Sapodilla trees in the orchard, but the 
choicer kinds (as, like almost every one else in Para, I was only a tenant at 
will in my house) were fastened on to bare hard wood blocks, which were 
hung on the trees, or on the shady side of the orchard fences. On the 
trees the growth of roots began at once, and the distance the roots would 
run up and down the trunks was astonishing. For example, a medium- 
sized plant of Cattleya superba stretched its roots four feet up and more 
than six feet down the trunk of a Sapodilla tree, these long roots often 
branching and covering the bark like a network. On plants grown on 
blocks the root growth was far shorter, but no less strong and healthy. 
Such profusion of roots could not fail to produce strong and healthy growth, 
and after a few months I was never without a good display of Orchid bloom. 
The treatment was simply, when two consecutive days followed without 
the afternoon shower, to give a syringing in early morning to the plants 
on blocks, those on the trees never requiring any. When the plants 
showed bud they were removed to the piazza and hung to the posts or to 
the rafters of the roof, where, being under cover and thus out of reach of 
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