ORCHIDS AT HOME. 



475 



may be excluded. They must be watered about 

 once a week. After treating in this manner for six 

 or seven weeks they may be brought to the light, 

 and an application of liquid manure now and again 

 will greatly increase the size of their blooms. 

 About ten weeks after they have been taken from 

 the dark recess they will commence to flower, and 

 not only one spike of flowers, but three or four will 

 come continuously. 



Crocus bulbs may be treated in a similar manner. 



but the flowers will not last so long. The Bermuda 

 or Easter lily should also be planted in September, 

 but it will not bloom until Easter. Many people 

 start these later, with poor success ; to get a strong 

 stem with a large number of blooms, they must be 

 started early. They should be treated like Roman 

 hyacinths, but not quite so much water should be 

 used. It is necessary, also, to get bulbs which have 

 ripened early. 



Ontario, CiDiada. Hermann Simmers. 



ORCHIDS AT HOME. 



LOW, one- story, heavy- walled, tiled 

 roofed house on the brow of a hill 

 overlooking the Amazon, some ten 

 miles above the city of Obidos. 

 The river here more narrow than at 

 any part of its course of thousands of miles, 

 and flowing with a current like a mill race, 

 bearing great islands of floating grass, often 

 acres in extent, torn away from shallow bays 

 above by the flood of water (for now is the season of 

 the annual rise) toward the ocean 400 miles away ; 

 around the house palms of many species— the 

 graceful assie {Euterpe cdulis), tucumas {Astrocar- 

 piim) of several kinds, full of great spikes of yellow 

 fruit; bacabas {QLnocarpus bacabd) and the plumy 

 cocoa nut {Cocos 7iucifera), which would be beauti- 

 ful if it ever would grow straight, but which gen- 

 erally looks like a palm in agony. Far to the rear 

 the dark masses of the cocoa ( Tlwohrouux) planta- 

 tion, the dark foliage lighted by the young leaves, 

 which are pink and red, the trunks and larger 

 branches heavy with the bright, orange colored 

 pods ; oranges of various kinds with fruit ripe and 

 unripe, and lemons, or rather limes, for the lemon is 

 seldom grown in the Amazonian region, bowed to 

 the ground by the fruit. A garden with ixoras, 

 gardenias, hibiscus, oleanders ; not puny pot 

 plants, but great bushes growing and blooming with 

 the freedom of lilacs, not for a few weeks only, 

 but every day in the year. Far below, near the 

 bank of the river, but almost lost in the wilderness 

 of foliage, a large olaria or pottery, of which only 

 the red tiled roofs of the large drying sheds appear. 

 Near by, our boatmen, with the servants of the 

 house, are busy preparing for supper a huge Ama- 

 zonian turtle, which the Brazilians say can be 

 cooked in 40 different ways, and which we had 

 brought as our contribution to the larder of our friend, 

 who had invited us to make him as long a visit as 

 we pleased, promising also to make an excursion 



vvith us to a charming waterfall, lying miles behind 

 his house, far in the direction of the borders of 

 Guiana. 



Such was the scene around us as we swung in our 

 hammock, hung between two mighty trees in front of 

 the house, watching the setting sun and the rising moon 

 which, flooding all with silver light, made, if possible, 

 the landscape more beautiful than by daylight. A turtle 

 supper supplemented by fish of several kinds, we all sit- 

 ting on palm mats in the bright moonlight, which was 

 far pleasanter than supping in doors ; then coffee and 

 cigarettes, such as one can only get on the Amazon, 

 while we swung in our hammocks with no fear of mala- 

 ria, for it is unknown, until our host admonished us 

 that if we wished to sleep at all, we must stop our talk- 

 ing, as we had to make an early start in the morning. 

 It seemed as if we had hardly closed our eyes when we 

 were awakened, long before dawn, and we sprung 

 from our hammocks to make ready for our waterfall ex- 

 cursion. Fortifying ourselves with long draughts of 

 rich black coffee, in the gray morn we took canoes on 

 the lake in the rear of the house and paddled rapidly 

 to the far, further shore. Darkness all around us, but 

 no chill, as in less favored climes ; only a warm balmy 

 air. Before we had made half the passage of the lake, 

 up burst the sun with scarce any premonition of his 

 coming and in an instant from silence and darkness the 

 world awoke to life and light. O, how glorious is the 

 sunrise of the tropics ! 



Pushing our canoes through a dense fringe of white 

 water lilies, {Kymplicva anipla) now just closing for the 

 day, but still filling the air with a rich, vanilla like fra- 

 grance, we landed on the further shore and camped for 

 breakfast, which, as we had a long march before us, 

 was speedily despatched. Then leaving all heavy articles, 

 the Indians carrying only a few hammocks in case we 

 were obliged to spend the night in the woods, as was 

 probable — for the country is uninhabited, except on the 

 river banks — also a supply of food and water, and each 

 armed with a long, sharp wood knife, we entered the 

 pathless forest. Single file we marched, two sturdy 

 Indians in front plying their knives so that the branches 

 and vines fell in a cloud, we scarce keeping up with 



