932 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



generally grown in rough tan, closely pressed together in small pots or baskets, and suspended from 

 the roof of the hot-house. Messrs. Loddiges have established some specimens^ on the trunks of palms 

 in the Indian or natural manner, and the Honorable and Rev. W. Herbert appears to have been 

 equally successful. " I am informed," he says, " by a friend at Calcutta, that he cultivated with 

 great ease, all tlie dendrobia aerides, and other parasitical plants, by tying them, with twine, to the 

 stem of a tree, or to the under-side of a branch, and placing above them a pot of water with a hole at 

 the bottom, through which a string passed, nearly as large as the aperture, by which the water was 

 gradually and continually conducted to the upper part of the parasitical plant, which requires to be 

 constantly moist and shaded ; and that a tree with smooth bark answered the purpose best. He men- 

 tions that dendrobium pieradii, fastened to a tree and irrigated in this manner, will, in a little more 

 than a year's time, produce pendulous racemes of flowers, from two to six feet long, and it appears likely 

 to thrive with me u.'feer the same treatment. 1 had previously found no difficulty in establishing epiden- 

 ura on the stems of trees in the stove, by cutting a notch in the bark and inserting the plant like a graft, 

 and tying moss about it to support it, till the young roots had attached themselves to tlie bark ; but from 

 want of sufficient moisture, they have not made much progress, or flowered with me: I have now adopted 

 the above-mentioned mode of irrigating them, with full confidence chat it will succeed in our stoves, as well 

 as it does at Calcutta; and very soon after its application to a sickly epidendron, growing on the stem of 

 sterculia balanghas, vigorous young fibres began to sprout from it on all sides. I am very much inclined 

 to think, that most of such plants would attach themselves to the sides of a porous sto.ie or vessel, or of a 

 dead root, if constantly irrigated, and thrive upon them as wcUas upon a living tree, especially if the stone or 

 root were covered with growing moss, for I have observed the fibres of more than one sort attach themselves 

 strongly to the outside of the pot in which they are planted ; and I conceive that they might be beautifully 

 cultivated, upon an ornamental cone of porous pottery, filled with water and furnished, on the outside, 

 with niches, in which the plants might be fixed, with a little moss or peat to promote their growth in the 

 first instance. I have found the parasitical plants in danger of perishing, from want of moisture, on a de- 

 ciduous tree, during its season of inactivity, but that deficiency would probably be removed by constant 

 irrigation. The neatest and most convenient vessels for that purpose, perhaps, would be little tubs, such as 

 are sold at toyshops, which might be easily tied to a branch, and perforated with a small gimlet. A short 

 string, of which one end is twisted round, or at least in contact with the plant, and the other inserted into 

 a phial of water, will also be found to convey a regular, thoiigh less plentiful supply of moisture, acting in 

 manner of a siphon. I have used it advantageously to nourish a graft, and promote its union with the 

 stock. For the cultivation of parasitical plants in pots, I recommend placing the pots on a back flue, in a 

 tin tray, about two inches deep, and half filled with wet sand, giving an abundant supply of water, but not 

 sufficient to produce rottenness by its stagnation. I find the growth of crinums, which also like a moist 

 heat, to be prodigiously rapid with that treatment ; I should suggest a mixture of porous stones, or bits 

 of broken pots, with old tan, or such peat as contains a portion of half-decayed wood, and a garnish of moss 

 to the pot, as preferable, for parasitical plants, to the loam which some of our books have recommended." 

 [Hort. Trans, iv. 245.) All these parasites are included under the natural order of Orchidese are of 

 herbaceous habits, and readily propagated by suckers or cuttings. 



6737. The Rafflesia Arnoldi is the most extraordinary parasite known to botanists. It was discovered by 

 the late Dr. Arnold, in Sumatra, in 1818, in a jungle or thicket, growing close to the ground under the bushes, 

 and attached to the roots of a species of cissus or vites. The plant consists of the flower only, having neither 

 leaves, branches, or roots ; the flower is a yard across ; the petals, which aresubrotund, being twelve inches 

 from the base to the apex, and it being about a foot from the insertion of the one petal to the opposite one ; 

 the petals are from a fourth to three fourths of an inch thick, and the nectarium, it is supposed, would 

 hold twelve pints. It appears to take its origin in some crack or hollow of the stem, and soon shows itself 

 in the form of a round knob, which, when cut through, exhibits the infant flower enveloped in numerous 

 bracteal sheaths, which successively open and wither away as the flower enlarges. A singular change takes 

 place in the vessels of the root or stem on which it grows ; their ramifications are multiplied, and they take 

 a direction so as to unite with and accommodate themselves to the base of the parasite to which tl)ey con- 

 vey nourishment. The general appearance of the flower is that of Stapeli^, and its smell is also fetid. It 

 is dioecious, and supposed by Brown to belong to the natural order of Asarinese. There is another species 

 11. horsfieldii with the flowers not above three inches in diameter. Both, it is probable, may in time be in- 

 troduced in our stoves. (See Lin. Trans, xiii. 201.) 



6738. Exotic ferns. The tree-ferns, Humboldt informs us, are of singular beauty in their native sites. 

 Only a few species of these, as dicksonia arborescens, davallia pyxidata, pteris aculeata, &c. have been 

 introduced ; but the number of herbaceous ferns which are stove plarnts is considerable. They are pro- 

 pagated from seeds which generally ripen freely in this country, and such as are received from abroad 

 generally grow, however long kept ; they are also muKiplied by dividing the roots. The best collection of 

 exotic ferns is considered to be in the Liverpool garden : many of these have been raised from seed by 

 Shepherd, the assistant curator ; and the following are his directions for tliis purpose : Having provided a 

 common garden-pot, four and a half inches in depth, and three and a half wide, let the bottom part, to the 

 height of one inch, be filled with fragments of broken pots by way of drain. Over these should be spread 

 a stratum of such soil as is commonly used for potting green-house plants, of the depth of two inches ; 

 the remaining half inch should be filled with brown loamy earth sifted through a hair sieve, the surface 

 being made perfectly smooth, and on this the seeds are to be scattered as evenly as possible. Care must 

 be taken that the wind be not sufifered to blow the seeds away, leaving nothing but empty capsules. The 

 seeds being sown, no other covering is requisite than a bell-glass, which should just fit within the rim of 

 the pot, so as to exclude all air. The pot is then to be kept in a pan always half full of water, and set in a 

 shady part of the stove or hot-house, being always regularly watered as above directed. When the young 

 plants have acquired their second leaf, it is proper to give them a little air by placing a small piece of 

 wood under the edge of the glass, at one side. In a short time afterwards the glass may be entirely 

 removed. {Hort. Trans, iii. 338.) 



6739. The seeds come up in two or three 7nonths, and the plants flower the following year. It is not 

 known how long these seeds retain their vegetative quality, but two plants of acrostichum calomelanus 

 were raised from seeds brushed from a specimen of that fern in the herbarium of Foster, supposed to be 

 near fifty years old. But the same success did not attend similar attempts with any other specimens from 

 this herbarium. The soil for ferns should be of a soft fine texture to suit the very small fibres of their 

 roots ; it requires als6 to be kept constantly moist in imitation of the native habitations of these plants ; 

 which is generaJy under the shade of trees or rocks. Hence also they may be set in dark parts of the 

 stoves where nMhing^lse will thrive. 



