ON THE CULTURE OF PHAIUS ALBUS. 
159 
great or too limited a degree of solar light would not only be found injudicious but 
seriously prejudicial. Instead, therefore, of adopting either or both of these 
extremes, the latter of which, as before remarked, is the usual course pursued by 
cultivators, we consider that the object of the grower would be much more fully 
attained, were the houses intended for orange trees constructed so as to admit a 
greater degree of light, and the plants retained in them throughout the whole 
season. By these means the trees would be maintained in a constant state of 
luxuriance, without either becoming weak or sickly, (as they almost invariably do 
in a dark house,) or being subjected to injury by a sudden removal from a confined 
and partially shaded situation, to one in which they would be entirely exposed to 
the full action of the sun^s rays. We are necessitated to reserve the consideration 
of the other tribes of plants (mentioned at the commencement of this article), with 
reference to the subject of light, for a future occasion, when we shall endeavour to 
pursue our inquiry in the same practical manner which has characterised the 
present and preceding essays, being fully convinced of the importance of avoiding 
all unnecessary allusions to abstract sciences, except so far as they enable us to 
illustrate or elucidate the subject more simply and intelligibly. 
ON THE CULTURE OF PHAIUS ALBUS. 
The treatment necessary to grow this extremely interesting orchidaceous plant 
to perfection being very peculiar, and a figure of it having appeared in our last 
number, a few remarks on its cultivation, as practised at Chatsworth, (where it has 
flowered beautifully in the present season,) may not be unacceptable to those of 
our readers who may happen to possess it, as well as to such of them who have 
not yet obtained it, and who feel interested in studying the peculiar habits of any 
portion of the singular tribe to which it belongs. 
In offering a few brief observations on the cultivation of this lovely plant, it is 
requisite to enforce the imperative necessity of allowing it a proper and sufficient 
period of rest ; for if the torpid stems are subjected to any stimulating heat, or 
induced to grow, before, by being kept in a cool house, their vital functions have 
been suspended for a sufficient length of time, and thus recruited and renovated, 
they will almost inevitably perish, as they will not endure the slightest forcing, 
nor can they under any circumstances whatever be excited into action with any 
degree of success before the proper season. The shoots which are produced in June 
and July, will reproduce shoots about the same period in the succeeding summer, 
and as soon as these latter are perfected, which will be about the month of Novem- 
ber or December, those of the preceding year's growth will perish, leaving only 
the young stems of the present year ; it will thus be perceived that the stems only 
last about eighteen months, which it is very important to bear in mind in cultivat- 
ing this plant. 
To enter, however, more particularly, into the treatment which this plant re- 
