September, 1914.] 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



271 



Miltonia Cloivesii as grown by Messrs. Loddiges 

 about 1842. 



with a sufficiency of moss to shade it and 

 preserve a due degree of moisture. The 

 adjoining illustration shows Sarcanthus 

 paniculatus as grown by Sir Joseph Banks in 

 1817. 



In 1820 Dean Herbert stated that he found 

 no difficulty in establishing Epidendrums on 

 the stems of a tree by cutting a notch in the 

 bark and inserting the plant like a graft and 

 tying moss about it to support it till the young 

 roots had attached themselves to the bark, 

 but for want of sufficient moisture they did 

 not make much progress. This defect was 

 remedied by placing above them a pot of 

 water with a hole at the bottom through 

 which a string passed nearly as large as the 

 aperture, by means of which the water was 

 gradually conducted to the upper part of the 

 parasitical plant. 



At a later period we read of Messrs. 

 Loddiges using a compost composed of rotten 

 wood and moss with a small quantity of sand. 

 Their Orchid house was heated by brick flues 

 to as high a temperature as possible, and by 

 a tan bed in the middle kept constantly moist 

 by watering and from which a steamy 

 evaporation was rising at all times without 

 any ventilation from outside. The adjoining 



blocks show two Orchid baskets as used by 

 them about the year 1840, and Miltonia 

 Clowesii, on a block of wood, flowering 

 in 1842. 



In 1845 J. C. Lyons, whose name 

 is preserved by Schomburgkia Lyonsii, 

 published a book on the management of 

 Orchidaceous plants, of special interest for 

 being the first work entirely devoted to the 

 cultivation of these plants. Although he 

 advocated a distinction being made between 

 those Orchids that grow naturally in shade in 

 damp hot places, and those that grow in an 

 elevated situation in a drier atmosphere and 

 in direct sunlight, he mainly followed the 

 practice of his predecessors. His chief 

 deviation was the admission of steam from 

 the boiler into the house every evening 

 during summer, and syringing the plants in 

 imitation of a gentle shower, instead of the 

 w^ater being driven against them with an 

 upsetting force. One of his inventions was 

 an imperishable slate basket for accommo- 

 dating the plants 111 the moisture-laden 

 atmosphere. 



Lycaste Sl^inneri as cultivated by Mrs. Wray, 

 Cheltenham, about 1 845. 



