214 



SOME NATIVE ORCHIDS. 



sets or is obscured by clouds. The entire appa- 

 ratus is under complete control, and may be set for 

 any temperature, according to the crop carried by 

 the house. The apparatus, at Stamford, worked 

 this last winter for many weeks without attention, 

 and the greenhouse was, as far as ventilation is 

 concerned, perfectly automatic. It practically ran 

 itself and was left for weeks without the slightest 

 attention. It, therefore, dispensed entirely with the 

 labor required to attend to the ventilating. 



In like manner, the oil or gas burner can be con- 

 trolled completely by the sun. A thermostat sus- 

 pended to the roof close to the glass turns down the 

 flame when the sun warms the house in the morn- 

 ing, and turns it up again at night, or whenever 

 clouds obscure the sun. The new house is thus en- 

 tirely automatic, self-heating and self- ventilating, 

 and the only attention needed is to see that the oil 

 tank is filled about twice a week and that the plants 

 are watered. In the case of gas, no attention is re- 

 quired from the time the gas is lighted in October 

 till it is put out in April. 



Mr. Barnard is assisted in his experiments by 

 George A. Weber, a mechanical engineer living 

 at Stamford, and the results of their labors are cer- 

 tainly of the greatest mterest to the horticultural 

 world. The details of these important inventions 

 are now being completed, and applications have al- 



ready been made for patents covering all the im- 

 provements. 



Naturally enough, in making these researches 

 many new facts in regard to greenhouse construc- 

 tion and management have been discovered. For 

 instance, it has been found that it is not necessary 

 to admit fresh air to such a house ; take out the hot 

 and bad air, and fresh air will leak in fast enough 

 through the cracks and through the soil inside the 

 house. Another point : plants in such an atmos- 

 phere are remarkably thrifty, and grow with great 

 vigor. The temperature being very uniform, day 

 and night, the plants also grow very fast. The 

 green-fly is easily managed, as the air is so still that 

 a few bunches of tobacco stems laid on the hot-water 

 pipes keep the flies in check. 



Messrs. Barnard and Weber will probably make 

 arrangements for the manufacture of these auto- 

 matic houses under their patents, and according to 

 designs that will be the outcome of their experi- 

 ments. The present house is, of course, small ; but 

 there seems to be no reason why the same ideas may 

 not be applied to any house heated by steam or hot 

 water, and employing gas or oil instead of coal. 

 The subject certainly suggests many interesting pos- 

 sibilities in the construction and management of all 

 kinds of horticultural buildings. 



SOME NATIVE ORCHIDS. 



F THE forty seven species and 

 varieties of orchids said to ha\ e 

 been found in New England, 

 not all are showy. A few have 

 flowers which have no special 

 attraction so far as color is 

 concerned. The botanist 

 would be interested in such, 

 but the ordinary cultivator 

 who grows them for their display of color in flowers 

 and foliage would not prize them. But some of 

 them are very beautiful. The genus cypripedium 

 (Lady's-Slipper) is one of the most interesting, and 

 New England has five charming species. 



The largest and most showy of these is the C. 

 spcclabilc. Not only is it the finest of the five, but 

 it is the most beautiful of the genus. The plant is 

 not uncommon in bogs from Maine to Wisconsin, 

 in Canada, and south along the AUeghanies. In 

 the east it is seldom seen, except in swamps where 

 the arbor vitje and tamarack abound, but in Wis- 

 consin it is sometimes found on higher ground. In 



New England and also in Michigan it is frequently 

 found among the poison sumac [Rims vetienata) 

 and on this account it is more difficult to obtain. 

 It is not a difficult plant to grow when plenty of 

 peat or leaf-mould is placed about its roots. A 

 gravelly or loamy soil is not so good as clay next to 

 the roots, but with peat it may be grown in any 

 well-drained, moist soil, in the shade. In wet bogs 

 it is frequently found in the open sunlight, but 

 such plants are not so large as where it is shaded, 

 at least a part of the time. The flowers are an 

 inch or more wide. The lip, which, by the way, is 

 the largest part of the flower of a Lady's Slipper, 

 is a crimped, inflated sac, somewhat egg-shaped, 

 pink, purple and white in color. There are fre- 

 quently several stalks from one plant and some- 

 times three, rarely more flowers on a stalk. 



The Stemless Lady's Slipper ( C. acaule) is perhaps 

 the most abundant and the hardest to transplant, yet 

 in well-drained loamy soil and in the shade it is not 

 difficult to grow. The flower, which is single, is 

 variable in color from a deep rose purple to almost 



