POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



423 



cept these consequences ? Prof. Drummond 

 prefers a theory of great northern elevations 

 of land creating mountain-chains and their 

 glaciers, accompanied or followed by a de- 

 pression farther south, which admitted the 

 arctic currents, or perhaps formed an in- 

 land sea and a highway for icebergs bearing 

 debris and bowlders, which they dropped on 

 the bottom. 



Orchids. — Orchids are commended by Mr. 

 Frederick Boyle as pleasant room-ornaments, 

 and clean, easily managed plants. " Observe 

 my Oncidium," he says ; " it stands in a pot, 

 but this is only for convenience — a recep- 

 tacle filled with moss. The long stem, feath- 

 ered with great blossoms, springs from a bare 

 slab of wood. No mold nor peat surrounds 

 it ; there is absolutely nothing save the roots 

 that twine round their support, and the wire 

 that sustains it in the air. It asks no atten- 

 tion beyond its daily bath." Sir Trevor Law- 

 rence can see no reason, in the case of most 

 orchids, why they should ever die. " The 

 parts of the Orchidece are annually repro- 

 duced in a great many instances, and there 

 is really no reason why they should not live 

 forever, unless . . . they are killed by errors 

 in cultivation." Another authority says that, 

 " like the domestic animals, they soon find 

 out when there is one about them who is 

 fond of them. With such a guardian they 

 seem to be happy, and to thrive, and to es- 

 tablish an understanding, indicating to him 

 their wants in many important matters as 

 plainly as though they could speak." Ac- 

 cording to Mr. Boyle, the secret of orchid- 

 culture lies in their indifference to detail 

 " Secure the general conditions necessary for 

 their well-doing, and they will gratefully re- 

 lieve you of further anxiety ; neglect those 

 general conditions, and no care for detail 

 will reconcile them." In Mr. Sander's orchid 

 farm, at St. Albans, England, where three 

 acres are occupied by orchids exclusively, 

 growing in the most profuse luxuriance, no 

 great pains are taken to exclude frost from 

 the cool houses. It would be better to keep 

 them at 60°, but the advantage does not 

 equal the expense and inconvenience of 

 warming such enormous buildings to the 

 requisite degree. Mr. Boyle says that the 

 " Indians of tropical America cherish a fine 

 orchid to the degree that, in many cases, no 



sum, and no offer of valuables, will tempt 

 them to part with it. Ownership is distinct- 

 ly recognized when the specimen grows near 

 a village." Mr. Roege has left a description 

 of the scene when he first beheld the Flor 

 de Majo. The church was hung with gar- 

 lands of it, and such emotion seized him at 

 the view that he choked. The natives showed 

 him plots of this species acres in extent, 

 where it was grown for the ornamentation 

 of their church. A fine Cattleya Morsice in 

 one of Mr. Sander's houses — the largest or- 

 chid of the kind that was ever brought to 

 Europe — had grown upon a high tree beside 

 an Indian's hut, and belonged to him, as it 

 had belonged to his grandfather. He re- 

 fused to part with it at any price for years, 

 but was overcome at last by a rifle of pecul- 

 iar fascination, added to the previous offers. 

 " A magic-lantern has great influence in such 

 cases, and the collector provides himself with 

 one or more nowadays as part of his outfit." 



Etching on Glass. — The object to be 

 etched is immersed in a bath of melted wax, 

 which on removal forms a thin coating over 

 its surface. On this the designs are carefully 

 scratched out by means of a pointed instru- 

 ment, which removes the wax along the lines 

 of the pattern. The glass is then immersed 

 in a solution of hydrofluoric acid. The acid, 

 which is very corrosive, attacks all the por- 

 tions of the glass not protected by the wax, 

 thus eating out the lines of the engraving on 

 the glass. When this is done, all that re- 

 mains is to clear away the wax. Owing to the 

 destructive nature of hydrofluoric acid, a spe- 

 cial room is kept, in which it is applied, the 

 windows of which must be coated with wax, 

 and the vessels used to contain the acid must 

 be made of lead. Monograms and similar de- 

 signs are printed in a kind of thick ink, on 

 transfer paper, the lines of the monogram be- 

 ing left uncovered by the ink. The pattern is 

 then transferred to the glass, the ink protect- 

 ing the portions covered from the acid in the 

 subsequent processes. As, however, the 

 monogram only covers a small portion of 

 say, a wine-glass or decanter, the rest is 

 coated with wax. The bath of hydrofluoric 

 acid is then used as before. The pretty 

 zigzag patterns which so frequently adorn 

 many wine-glasses are scratched on the wax 

 by means of several ingenious machines. 



