36 
THE ORCHID WORLD. 
[November, igi2. 
of these, instead of producing blooms, make 
new growths which ultimately become separate 
plants with their own root system. 
The most vigorous buds are invariably the 
first to commence growth, and rapidly cr n- 
sume much of the available nutritive material 
m the adjacent part of the bulb, consequently 
the other buds remain dormant through lack 
of sufficient excitement, or, in other words, 
deficiency of life-directivity. If two or three 
young plants are all that the propagator 
requires, all well and good, but in the case of 
specially fine varieties a large number is 
frequently desired. These may best be 
obtained by entirely separating a healthy 
unflowered bulb from the plant and placing it 
m a horizontal position on some clean sphag- 
num moss, which should be kept moist, and 
the whole placed in a fairly high temperature. 
In a short time the nodes, or bud portions of 
the bulb, will commence to form young plants, 
and these, as soon as signs of root action are 
visible, should be removed with a portion of 
the old stem still attached. The vigour left 
in the remaining parts of the old bulb v<!ll 
cause other dormant "eyes" to commence 
growth, and these, when sufficiently large, 
may as well as later ones be taken off, the 
process being continued until all the " eyes " 
or the vigour of the old bulb is exhausted. 
Almost e\ery grower of experience has 
seen large plants of Odontoglossum crispum 
with additional flower spikes, not only one, 
but even two or three, produced from the 
apex of the bulb. These are the result of a 
superabundance of vigour, or life-force, which, 
failing to find sufficient means of expansion 
in the normal laterally produced spikes, excites 
the buds at the apex of the bulbs, and other 
flower spikes are produced. In a morpho- 
logical sense flower buds originate in the same 
way as ordinary leaf buds, and in their earlier 
stages there is little to distinguish the one 
from the other. Now these apical buds, under 
certain conditions, possess the aptitude to 
form adventitious shoots, which under ordinary 
methods of cultivation eventually become self- 
existent plants. The usual course of events in 
matured bulbs of Odontoglossums is for new 
life to manifest itself in the awakening of one 
of the dormant buds situated at the base of 
the bulb, but m instances where these are 
absent, either through previous use or 
damage. Nature, in her perpetual striving to 
maintain the species, directs the life-fcrce to 
the apex of the bulb where it usually obtains 
the desired object by transforming the adven- 
titious apical buds into young growths, or 
bulbils, and these, in due course, produce 
normal plants. Our illustration shows young 
plants in various stages of formation being 
cultivated in Mr. de Barri Crawshay's collec- 
tion, " Rosefield," Sevenoaks. Zygopetalums, 
especially Mackayi and intermedium, are 
easily propagated in this way. 
Propagation by means of young plants pro- 
duced on the flower spikes is of rare occur- 
rence. Phala?nopsis Lueddemanniana is a 
notable exception, young plants being fre- 
quentl}- produced on the spikes, much more so 
than on other species of the genus. Certain 
Oncidiums possess the power of forming 
young plants in this way, and these in turn 
produce others, so that three or four genera- 
tions of plants may be seen all growing on the 
same parent plant. 
Of still greater rarity is the production of 
young plants on exposed aerial roots of 
Orchids. Phalaenopsis Stuartiana and other 
species have occasionally been seen with this 
peculiarity, while records show that Sacco- 
labiums and Cyrtopodiums ma\' also be 
included. Neottia Nidus-avis regularly repro- 
duces itself by forming new plants from the 
points of the root fibres, although these plants 
do not appear above ground until flowering 
strength is attained. 
Certain species of Restrepia usually have 
several new growths appearing from the apex 
of the old bulbs. They obtain nutriment 
partly from the old p'ant, but largely by aerial 
roots. And Lindley, in his " Theory of Horti- 
culture," 1840, states that "offsets spring from 
the margins of the leaves of Malaxis palu- 
dosa," a rather rare British epiph\ tal Orchid. 
The propagation of Orchids is a profitable 
and most interesting study, and anyone who 
can spend the time in its further investigation 
will no doubt be handsomely rewarded for his 
trouble. 
