INTRODUCTION OF FLOWERING ORCHIDACE^ TO DRAWING-ROOMS. 255 
their permanent abode. Few would then wish to visit the whole collection, and 
certainly none would desire to remain long enough in a house deprived of all 
floral ornaments, to suffer any ill effects from its atmosphere. 
Nevertheless, this plan could not be extensively acted upon without some 
guarantee that the plants would not be injured thereby ; and, to supply this with 
any degree of security, the atmosphere of both departments must so far assimilate, 
that no violent check will be opposed to the plant's progress by such a removal. 
To suppose that a plant luxuriating in every species of external excitation, would 
derive no detriment by being suddenly transported from that position to one far 
cooler, drier, and darker, is assuredly incorrect and fatuous. 
The safest criterion for determining the extent to which any Orchidaceous plant 
will bear a change of atmosphere, is the stage of growth to which it has arrived 
when this transition is necessary. It is notorious that the majority of Orchidacese 
flower from the pseudo-bulbs or stems of the one year s formation, just before those 
of the following season begin to develop themselves. Some, indeed, blossom from 
the summits of the new growth during its progress towards maturity, but these are 
comparatively scarce. How naturally, then, does this fact suggest the propriety of 
keeping each individual plant in a state of dormancy, so far as can be effected by 
withholding regular supplies of water, till the expansion of its blossoms ; when it 
may be taken to the drawing-room and kept in the same condition till these have 
faded, and afterwards returned to the Orchidaceous-house to have its native energies 
thoroughly and seasonably elicited by more genial and active influences. 
This is the simple annual circle of cultivation that is alone needful to obtain all 
the delights which these charming plants are capable of imparting, without any of 
the drawbacks inseparable from the system now in vogue. Desirous, however, of 
satisfying all objections that may reasonably be urged, we will anticipate those 
which appear strongest. It will instantly be perceived that we have based our 
method on the somewhat gratuitous assumption, that a general period of rest is 
allowed to the whole tribe during the winter, and that the principal part of them 
flower in the spring. We must admit that these points are at present little more 
than supposititious : but experience has so far invested them with plausibility, as to 
render them more than mere conjectures ; and we are convinced that time only is 
requisite for the full establishment of their practicability and appropriateness. 
Long ere the present period, the question above-mooted might have been 
decided, had it not been for the abundance of novelties continually pouring in from 
newly-explored countries. It is these which have virtually suppressed the 
cultivator s efforts to generalize and (if we may use the expression) naturalize his 
treatment. Besides concentrating his attention on them, and occupying so much 
of his thoughts by the ardent and worthy wish they have engendered to preserve 
and flower them successfully, they have generally been grown in the same house 
as old-established specimens, and, to administer to their feeble necessities, all others 
have been regarded in only a subordinate light. The slightest reflection will 
