THE ORCHID WORLD. 



[September, 1914- 



AIR PLANTS. 



THE early attempts to cultivate Orchids 

 successfully were often more ingenious 

 than useful, for it must be remem- 

 bered that when these plants were first 

 discovered they were beUeved to exist mainly 

 on the atmosphere, and for that reason were 

 frequently called "air plants." In the year 

 1 812 Messrs. Loddiges received a plant of 

 Oncidium bifolium from a gentleman who 

 brought it from Monte Video, and who 

 informed them that it was hung up in the 

 cabin without earth, and continued to flower 

 during a great part of the voyage home ; a 



/ 2 

 /. Orchid basket usid by Sir Joseph Banks in 

 1817. 2. Slate basket used by J. C. Lyons. 



statement that was then regarded as a 

 traveller's tale and beyond the limits of 

 credulity. 



In 1817 it was stated that air plants 

 possess the faculty of growing when 

 suspended so as to be cut off from all 

 sustenance but that derived immediately from 

 the atmosphere. The accomplishment of 

 keeping these plants alive until they flowered 

 was consequently one of more than ordinary 



Orchid baskets used by Messrs. Loddiges 

 about 1840. 



interest, and when in 18 13 Mr. Fairbairn was 

 successful with yErides odoratum something 

 more than the wonderful appeared to have 

 taken place. He 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, into which the basket was plunged 

 six or seven times a day, or as often as he 

 passed it. 



Sir Joseph Banks devised one of the most 

 successful modes of treating Orchids then 

 known and which he practised in his hothouse 

 at Isleworth. He placed the plants separately 

 in light cylindrical wicker baskets or cages of 

 suitable width, of which the framework was 

 of long slender twigs wattled together at the 

 bottom, the upper portion being left open 

 that the plant might extend its growth in any 

 direction and yet be kept steady in its station, 

 the ends of the twigs having been tied 

 together by the twine that suspended the 

 whole from the roof of the stove. A thin 

 layer of vegetable mould was strewed on the 

 floor of the basket on which the root-stock 

 was placed, and then covered slightly over 



Orchid Baskets used by the Rev. John Clowes. 



