50 



REPORT ON THE 



The President then called upon Mr. O'Brien to read his 

 paper on 



" The Cultivation of Orchids." 



Mr. James O'Brien said : The subject of Orchid culture being 

 almost inexhaustible, I shall only be able to touch briefly upon some 

 of its phases, and in doing so, whilst endeavouring to make some 

 remarks acceptable to all Orchid growers, I shall direct them 

 principally towards the amateur. A glance at what has been 

 written on the subject many years ago, proves that there may be 

 rules laid down for the culture of any or all of the Orchids, and 

 that a good result once attained may always be secured by 

 following the same line of treatment. Whenever I read a 

 detailed account of the treatment given to an exceptionally fine 

 plant by some grower of forty or fifty years ago, I find that in 

 our practice of to-day we need not depart from it in the least to 

 ensure the same good results, which ought, however, to be 

 attained by us with much less trouble than by those of olden 

 time, by reason of the much better accommodation we have. 



Orchids, from the time of the earliest arrivals, have always 

 been appreciated, and as early as the year 1800, when the lovely 

 Aerides odoratum and many other showy things were introduced, 

 their habits and culture seem to have been understood fairly well, 

 but the bad construction of the houses and their defective 

 heating by means of flues and other contrivances militated sadly 

 against the culture of the small growers and the varieties 

 requiring cool treatment ; and hence, while many continued the 

 culture of the more robust kinds, and attracted visitors from 

 distant parts to see them when in bloom, no general progress 

 was made until the period between 1835 and 1850, which was 

 perhaps the richest in importations of fine handsome Orchids. 



During that period the fine discoveries of Messrs. Veitch's 

 collector (Lobb) with aerides, saccolabiums, and vandas ; 

 Griffiths with his cymbidiums and dendrobes ; Skinner, Barker, 

 and Hartweg, in Mexico, Guatemala, and along the Andes ; and 

 other collectors, made quite a revival among the Orchid growers, 

 and the result of new energy being put into the matter was that 

 with some of the showier Orchids such perfection was attained 

 that I fear we could not even now match some of the specimens 

 mentioned as being exhibited at the Horticultural Society's Shows 



