ORCHID CONFERENCE. 



21 



the plant operated upon is not strong, it not infrequently perishes 

 even before the seed is ripe. 



[Diagrams of seeds, and seedlings in various stages of develop- 

 ment here introduced. See Plates, pp. 37 — 45.] 



If the ripening of the capsules takes place under such adverse 

 influences, the same influences are by no means propitious to the 

 early infancy of the progency. The period from germination to 

 the formation of the first roots, which, for want of a better 

 phrase, and for the present purpose, I will call the thalloid 

 state of the young plant, and which sometimes occupies seveial 

 months, is the most critical in the life of seedling Orchids raised 

 in glass structures ; it is especially so with cypripedium, calanthe 

 and phalaenopsis, and seedlings of these we accordingly find to be 

 the most difficult to preserve prior to their getting firmly rooted. 

 A succession of dull, cloudy days in winter, and even a few hours 

 of London fog, will cause a great mortality, not only among 

 these, but among all seedlings in a similar stage. 



The cares and solicitudes of the raiser of Orchid seedlings 

 are by no means diminished when the infant plants are fairly 

 rooted ; they must still be constantly tended with the most 

 assiduous care. To neglect the watering, for instance, for a 

 single day, or even for a few hours in the height of summer, 

 may prove fatal ; and so, on the other hand, an excess of 

 coddling, giving them too much heat or too much water, by 

 stimulating them into growth before their natural season arrives, 

 is equally a source of danger. Nor is it the only one. "We 

 know of an instance of the splendid Dendrobium nobile nobilius 

 being crossed with I), aureum ; the capsule was matured in due 

 course, and the seed sown, but only one seedling was raised. 

 This, as may be readily supposed, was tenderly cared for, but all 

 to no avail ; the seedling had grown to about half-an-inch, when 

 one night a vulgar snail devoured the precious morsel at a single 

 meal. (Laughter.) We, too, have had our troubles. Among 

 our earliest phalaenopsis crosses we succeeded in raising a single 

 seedling from a capsule of Phalanopsis amabilis crossed with 

 P. rosea, which we were particularly anxious to save, as it would 

 have solved the question of the parentage of P. intermedia or Portii, 

 which is a supposed natural hybrid between the same two species. 

 The plant had made three healthy leaves ; it was well established 

 in a small pot, which, to be the more secure from danger, was 

 placed upon an inverted pot that stood in a pan of water. One 



