232 THE PHILADELPHIA FLORIST. [Dec'k 



susc*?- ■ — ■ -^cGm 



x ly cultivated with perfect success for years together ; and with good X) 

 management they become far handsomer than in their wild state. 9|S 



It is, however, a circumstance to be noted, that they all thrive best 

 if sheltered. Treated as frame or greenhouse plants, they acquire a 

 vigour and brilliancy of color which they are not unusually thought 

 to possess. Although natives of our own country in many cases, and 

 in others inhabiting climates where the winter is rigorous, yet they 

 evidently like warmth by day, and to be guarded from a very low 

 temperature at night. 0. mascula and Morio managed as greenhouse 

 plants, well fed and skilfully put to rest when the time of annual 

 torpor arrives, and then taken care of, become objects of such striking 

 beauty as even to be thought new species by persons not critically 

 acquainted with them. It is indeed probable that the magnificent 

 Orchis foliosa of Madeira, at one time a most beautiful decoration of 

 greenhouses, but eventualty the victim of negligence, is nothing more 

 than a noble form of our own 0. latifolia, invigorated by a long 

 residence in that temperate island. Possibly the explanation of the 

 circumstance now alluded to is to be found in the natural habits 

 among grass, or in woods, where they are guarded from night's cold 

 by the surrounding herbage or the overhanging foliage. 



The cause of failure in the cultivation of these plants is, we believe, 

 attributable to nothing whatever except a neglect of shelter when 

 they are in leaf, and to ill treatment when going to rest, provided al- 

 ways they were originally in good health when brought under domes- 

 tication, which is nineteen times in twenty not the case. For what 

 does a person do when he sets about growing wild Orchids, except go 

 into the neighboring fields with a trowel when the plants are in flower, 

 take them up with " a good ball," pop them into a basket, where their 

 tender leaves are crushed and ruined for life, and then transfer them 

 with little skill or care, to a flower-pot or a flower border 1 Under 

 such conditions the consider is, not that they unusually languish and 

 die, but that they ever live. 



The following shows the manner of growth of tuberous Orchids, 

 and explains the cause of the failure which so so often attends their 

 introduction into gardens. 



When a tuberous Orchis has completed its growth, and is prepared 

 to undergo its annual rest, it consists of a somewhat horny oblong 

 body or tuber, which we will call B, with a minute bud at one end, 

 and probably the remains of an old tuber, A, adhering to it. The 

 tuber B is firm, plump, and filled with grains of starch imbedded in 

 mucilage analogous to gum tragacanth, among which is dispersed at 

 small quantity of a fragrant or strong smelling matter similar to the 

 principle which gives its peculiarity to Vanilla. Thus organized, 

 thus prepared, it remains in the ground during the autumn, hardening 



29V. i *€QS& 



