HYBRID ORCHIDS. 



183 



growing sphagnum in it it is clipped back ; the seeds are 

 sprinkled over the surface, the record label attached corresponding 

 with the entry in the stock-book, and the plant is watered as 

 usual, but with care not to wash the minute seeds off, and rain- 

 water is always used for hybrids in all stages. Many seeds are 

 wasted of course, as they would be if self-sown in the tropics, and 

 with a view to the inevitable in this direction nature has supplied 

 the capsules with innumerable seeds to meet the risks. 



One of the most fruitful causes of failure in raising hybrid 

 Orchids is that low forms of vegetation, generally known to the 

 gardener as "Moss," are apt to spread over the surface of the 

 material on which the seeds are sown, or on which the tiny little 

 fleshy discs tell of the first step towards obtaining plants having 

 been successful. In such cases the whole of an interesting cross 

 has often been lost, and to endeavour to escape it the energies of 

 all Orchid hybridists are employed. The fact that these low 

 forms of vegetable life always, and naturally, appear on freshly 

 prepared surfaces is the great argument against making up pots 

 of peat and other Orchid potting material on which to sow the 

 seeds when ready ; for in such cases, unless some means to prevent 

 it has been resorted to, the Moss gets ahead of the germinating 

 seeds and young plants, and destruction results. 



Sterilisation, by either baking or pouring boiling water over 

 the peat to be used for making up the seed pans, is generally 

 practised by those who elect to sow them in pans or pots not 

 already containing plants, and of the two methods probably 

 boiling, or the use of boiling water, is the better, for by that 

 means the fibre is not rendered brittle, and liable to pass into 

 very fine soil, which the seeds do not like, as it is by the process 

 of baking. In making up the seed pans care should be taken 

 that both the crocks used and the pots themselves shall be per- 

 fectly clean, and in filling in the material the pots should be 

 crocked half-way up, and the finer portions of the peat placed on 

 the top layer on which to sow the seeds. 



Sphagnum Moss should not be used or very sparingly, so far 

 as my observation goes, and the pots on which the seeds are sown 

 and the young plants are growing should either be suspended or 

 placed on a shelf near the glass of the roof. A Wardian case is 

 advocated by some as a means to hasten and ensure the quick 

 germination of the seeds. Where such a contrivance is used I 



