OECHIDEOUS EPIPHYTES. 199 ORCHIDEOUS EPIPHYTES. 



dislodged from the trees on which 

 they had grown. He even observed 

 that the colour of the Oncidium 

 papilio "was much darker on the 

 ground than it was in its natural 

 situation on the branches of a lofty 

 tree. From his finding no Orcbidese 

 on dead trees, he was led to suppose 

 that the plants draw some kind of 

 nourishment from the trees on which 

 they live ; and he also remarked that 

 rough and soft-barked trees were 

 their favourite abodes. He found 

 Oncidium papilio, and a kind of 

 Schomburgkia, called by the Indians 

 the Spread Eagle, on the upper 

 branches of trees, which were exposed 

 to the air, and at least from twenty 

 to thirty feet from the ground, and 

 O. luridum, and the Catasetums, on 

 branches fully exposed to the sun ; 

 while the Gongoras, Rodriguezias, and 

 Corysanthes were on the soft and 

 young wood, not more than seven or 

 eight feet from the ground, in the 

 most dense and thickest parts of the 

 forest. These hints, and the obser- 

 vations of other collectors, have been 

 of great service to cultivators ; and in 

 consequence they generally grow 

 their epiphytes on rough-barked trees, 

 that of the Robinia pseud.- Acacia, 

 (Cobbett's Locust,) for example, half 

 covering the log with moss, to retain 

 the moisture, and to imitate the soft 

 woolly bark of some of the trees of 

 the tropics. These logs are hung 

 from nails in the rafters, or from rods 

 suspended across the roof; and the 

 pseudo bulbs or rhizomas of the plants 

 are bound on them with fine wire, and 

 covered with Sphagnum, or some 

 other kind of moss. Messrs. Loddiges 

 use living plants of Lycopbdium 

 stolomferum, which have the advan- 

 tage of looking better, as well as of 

 retaining more moisture than any kind 

 of dead moss. Mr. Beaton makes 

 a ball of moss, which he suspends in 

 the hollow formed by the branches of 



a three -forked stick, which he hangs 

 up from the rafters till the plants are 

 established ; and then he places the 

 stick in a pot, taking care that the 

 length of the stick below the fork is 

 sufficient to hold up the ball of moss 

 with the plant attached, just above the 

 rim of the pot — after which he fills 

 up the pot with pieces of turfy peat. 

 When the Orchideous plants are grown 

 in baskets, the baskets should be made 

 of copper wire, or if of iron, they 

 should be painted with anti-corrosive 

 paint. They should be formed like 

 the basket shown in fig. 12, in p. 

 104, with the bars sufficiently apart 

 to allow the flower stems of the Stan- 

 hopeas, and other plants sending out 

 their flower-stems from their roots, 

 to push their way through, and to 

 hang down between the bars. For 

 this reason, baskets like that shown 

 in fig. 13, in p. 105, are not suitable 

 for any Orchideous plants but those 

 that send up their flower-stems from 

 their pseudo bulbs. The baskets for 

 Stanhopeas and other root-flowering 

 plants should be from three to six 

 inches deep, and from six to ten 

 inches wide ; and they should be 

 filled with moss or with strips of turf 

 two or three inches wide, and placed 

 on end round the inside of the basket, 

 so as to stand nearly upright, with a 

 large fiat piece in the centre. The plant 

 should be placed in the middle, and 

 the basket filled up with broken pieces 

 of turf, mixed with crocks or cinders, 

 if the plant be very delicate, and easily 

 affected by too much moisture. These 

 baskets are very convenient for Orchi- 

 deous plants, as they may either be 

 suspended from the roof, or placed on 

 an inverted pot ; or if the plant re- 

 quires bottom heat, the basket may 

 be placed on the surface of a pot 

 plunged in the hot-bed. The basket 

 also looks better and more elegant 

 when the plant is in flower, and is 

 wanted to be shown in a drawing- 



