48 



PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY, 1867. 



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ORCHID^OUS PLANTS. 



While on a hast^^ look through the grounds of Mr. 

 Weightman, near Philadelphia, we were reminded 

 how unfortunate it is that people will still think 

 the culture of air plants should be costly and expen- 

 sive. Here were several dozen of beautiful kinds, 

 including Grongoras, Catleyas, Oncidiums, Stanho- 

 peas and Dendrobiums, in perfect health and vigor, 

 growing in baskets suspended in a sunk pit, in 

 which just enough fire was kept to keep Steviasand 

 such like plants growing through winter for cut 

 flowers. 



How very different this to the plan pursued by 

 our fathers. The writer has a painful recollection 

 of a year of suffocation in an orchidaea house, where 

 the temperature was never allowed to fall below 

 90°, — a moist atmosphere, where no vapor was al- 

 lowed to escape, and no rays of the sun ever allowed 

 to penetrate. The orchidaea house of the past gen- 

 eration was a place devoted to melancholy and mis- 

 ery, — where the proprietor hastened in to catch a 

 glance of the curious forms of vegetation, and has- 

 tened to the glorious world outside as speedily as 

 possible. 



There are, probably, no class of plants which 

 unite beauty and sweetness, with so much singular- 

 ity of form as this of the Orchidaea or air-plants. 

 While at Mr. Weightman' s the Gongora had a 



beautiful raceme in full flower, which starting from 

 the base of the bulb at the surface of the soil, crept 

 over the side of the basket and hung gracefully over 

 the side. The rich, aromatic fragrance filled the 

 whole house : and though the Grongora is not 

 amongst the showiest of Orchidasa, its flower is re- 

 markable for its striking resemblance to a dead, 

 winged insect. The cut is an illustration of a flower 

 ot a Grongora. 



Mr. Johnson, Mr. Weightman's gardener, man- 

 ages these plants extremely well, and he expressly 

 told us his art consisted mainly in letting them 

 alone. He syringes them once or twice a week, 

 which was about all the treatment they received. 



We have, wild, some forms of Orchidaea, but 

 they are mainly terrestrial, growing in swamps or 

 shady woods, which, when examined, bear curious 

 resemblances to insects, and have other odd shapes. 

 But very few of them have the remarkable forms of 

 the Epiphytal, or strictly air-growing kinds of more 

 tropical regions. The Mocassin flower or Cypripe- 

 dtum, is however, an exception. These are scat- 

 tered over the United States, but are nowhere plen- 

 tiful. The labellum, or lower lip of the flower, is 

 turned up, resembling an Indian shoe. In Europe 

 the Cypripediums are termed Lady's Slipper. The 

 southern and South American species are, however, 

 quite as pretty as ours, and much more easy to 

 grow. One, C. insignis, will grow well in any green- 

 house or warm r.oom, and endure almost any treat- 

 ment, and bloom freely all winter. Specimens of 

 this have been exhibited before the Pennsylvania 

 Horticultural Society with hundreds of flowers. 



Many of the terrestrial Orchids of the south are 

 curious, however, besides the Mocassin flowers. — 

 About Panama grows the " Flower of the Holy 

 Spirit," which, when exhibited from the green- 

 houses of Caleb Cope, Esq. , in Philadelphia, some 

 years ago, drew such crowds to the Horticultural 

 Society's show. This plant, however, is not so showy 

 as some, having waxy, white flowers about an inch 

 across, in the centre of which seems to be a dove sit- 

 ting on a nest. This flower, the Peristeria elata, id 

 represented in the annexed cut. 



est chari 



We have, in a former 



To many, the singularity of form which these h 

 plants present in their flowers, is one of their great- f 



volume, figured 



