CURSORY REMARKS. 
163 
this tribe are yet only grown^ not cultivated. The fine specimens exhibited in the 
neighbourhood of London would seem to give a contradiction to this statement ; 
but, considered in comparison with the excellence attained in the management of 
other stove and greenhouse plants, there appears to be much truth in it. The 
present elegant species has baffled the efforts of many cultivators, although appearing 
to grow freely, and to flower well watli others. And, perhaps, the method of 
management about to be detailed, — though the healthy and clean appearance of the 
plant evidences its applicability and success, might be dangerous in the hands of 
the inexperienced. Still it will show that ingenuity, when directed by a know- 
ledge of the habits of a plant and the conditions under which it grows in its native 
locality, may contrive means to overcome the obstacles and difficulties that arise in 
adapting it to an artificial climate. 
Naturally, B. rigida grows during the rainy season in the humid forests of Brazil, 
sheltered from the blaze of the sun by a thick canopy of foliage ; and its peculiar 
character and the position of its roots, place it beyond the means of acquiring 
other nourishment than that which floats in the atmosphere or falls from the 
heavens. From these facts we may reasonably conclude that during the same 
season in an artificial climate a large amount of aqueous matter is not only 
necessary but indispensable. 
In no place have we seen more healthy specimens than in the nursery of Messrs. 
Loddiges, of Hackney. The plant is grown in a basket formed of shells, fixed 
together with wire clasps, and filled with decaying moss, concealed from view by 
a verdant covering of growing Lycopodiums. The looseness of the material and 
the open nature of the basket, allows water to pass away with great readiness. A 
trellis formed of four strong, upright wires, w^ith smaller ones twisted spirally 
around them, supports the plant, which, it will be recollected by those who have 
seen it, has pseudo-bulbs, distantly separated by long, wiry, ascending rhizomas, 
and numerous long white roots protruding from the base of each. During the 
growing season, the plant is placed in a warm, house, and near it a pipe, one inch 
in diameter, from an elevated cistern of tepid water. This pipe is pierced with 
an extremely small hole, from which a fine jet-d''eau rises a little higher than the 
plant, and beats upon a piece of glass placed over it, which precipitates the water 
upon it in a fine spreading, dew-like shower, that trickles down the numerous 
roots, and hangs in pellucid, pearl-like drops at the extremity, undoubtedly 
furnishing them with an abundance of nutriment, and that more constantly than 
when dependent for it alone on the atmosphere and occasional syringings. 
It is hardly necessary to observe, that this spray-like stream is only applied 
during the season of the most active growth, and is then accompanied by a 
proportionately warm temperature ; as the bulbs attain perfection, it must be 
gradually withdrawn, and wholly withheld as the season of torpidity approaches. 
During winter no more moisture is necessary, or indeed useful, than merely 
sufficient to maintain the pseudo-bulbs in a plump unshrivelled state. Probably, 
