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LI. On the Cultivation of Air Plants in Stoves. In a 

 Letter to the Secretary. By Mr. Thomas Fairbairn, 

 F. H. S. 



Read September 2, 1828. 



Sir, 



In the Summer of 1813, 1 flowered the Air Plant, or Aeridea 

 odoratum, very finely ; it was one complete basket of flowers, 

 and is in the recollection of many Gentlemen who were in 

 the habit of going to see Sir Josepii Banks, at his library 

 in Soho Square ; the plant was kept there for some weeks. 

 The treatment was as follows : — I put the plant when first 

 received, into a basket with old tan and moss, and hung it 

 up in the Pine House, where it was exposed to the summer 

 sun and to the fire heat in winter ; a tub of water was placed 

 near it, so that I could take down and plunge the basket six 

 or seven times a day, or as often as I passed it. 



The Air Plant that I have flowered so successfully lately at 

 Claremont is Renanthera coccinea ; it was brought from China 

 by Captain Mitchel, in 1824. Its treatment has been nearly 

 the same as that above described, with some variation how- 

 ever, which cultivators may find an improvement : — first, some 

 old rotten roots of fern and moss were collected, and put 

 into the bottom of a china jar, in which the plant was placed, 

 it was then covered nearly over with the same materials, and 

 as roots were made, they were covered with more moss ; it 

 was then suspended over the flue where the fire comes into 

 the house, and a large water-pot, with a syringe was always 



