SOME ESSENTIAL POINTS OF ORCHID CULTIVATION. 9 
steal their food from the supply existing in the living organism upon 
which they are situated. 
(2) Saprophytes. — Not a few plants nourish themselves by living 
upon decaying remains of animals and plants and other organic 
substances. 
(3) Epiphytes. — These plants, although often found growing on 
other plants, neither steal their nourishment from the living nor the 
dead. They have an independent existence, and it matters but little 
whether they are situated on trees or rocks, or cultivated in baskets 
or pots. 
How, then, do epiphytic Orchids obtain their requisite nutriment ? 
Soon after the commencement of the new growth the root system 
becomes active in order to procure the nutriment necessary for sus- 
taining the plant in a vigorous condition. If the roots fail to find the 
requisite food the plant will soon exhaust itself and the bulbs assume 
a shrivelled appearance. An examination of the roots of epiphytic 
Orchids will show that in the majority of cases they are covered with* 
a sponge-like material, known as the velamen, which has the power 
of absorbing atmospheric moisture as well as liquid nutriment, and 
by this means supplies the bulbous stems of the plant with food and 
water. Where long periods of drought are experienced, Nature has 
provided the plants with correspondingly larger bulbs, so that a greater 
amount of food material may be preserved. 
It has already been pointed out that epiphytic Orchids exist 
chiefly on the trunks and branches of trees and on other exposed 
positions. The small amount of nutriment existing in these places 
would very soon be utilized by the plant, were it not for the further 
supplies continually being washed down from adjoining positions by 
every shower of rain. These additional supplies are obtained from 
partly decomposed vegetable fibre, leaves, and moss which have 
accumulated in hollow places on the trunks and branches of trees, 
or in crevices of the rock-like soil. Thus we can see how it was that 
cultivators of bygone days who fastened their Orchids to blocks of 
wood rarely reaped success for more than a single season ; the plant 
quickly absorbed the small quantity of food material on the dead 
block, and, having used up all its reserve, died for want of further 
supplies. 
Many cultivators may here say with truth that the system of 
securing Orchids to blocks of wood has long since been discarded. 
But is the present method employed by many amateurs much better ? 
Instead of a block of wood they use a basket, pot, or pan filled with 
fibrous material, which may answer very well for one season, but the 
nutriment is then, if not before, practically exhausted ; yet the culti- 
vator rarely thinks of replenishing the supply of food, which, in the 
plant's natural home would be brought to it by every shower of rain 
or by the roots continually extending themselves to pastures new. 
The fibrous material usually remains firm long after its nutritive 
properties are exhausted, but it is then as useless to the plant as the 
