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RECEPTACLES FOR ORCHIDACEA5. 
It is impossible to enter any of the British stoves, in which Orchidaceae are 
extensively and aptly cultivated, without being struck with the surprising effect, 
either pleasurable or annoying, which the receptacles in which they are grown 
immediately produce. If the eye encounter a collection of suspended plants, dis- 
posed in the most irregular manner, on the greatest diversity of blocks, baskets, 
and prepared earthen or other pots, a delightful sense of congruity and naturalness 
is excited, and a very grateful feeling ensues. But should the arrangement border 
on formality, the materials be nearly uniform, and the shape of the receptacles 
incline to one common type, however appropriate, an emotion of a directly converse 
nature will be experienced. 
Such being the obvious, and, we think, indisputable influence of so seemingly 
trivial a circumstance, it becomes the duty of the cultivator to inquire, how it may 
be directed into an agreeable channel, and what are the sorts of receptacles which 
will best, generally, answer the purpose of supporting and displaying the individual 
plants ; of concealing and counteracting, as far as practicable, the artificial appear- 
ance they must, in some degree, assume ; and of composing, when associated, an 
interesting and alluring whole. 
Here, however, another question arises. What may be most pleasing to the 
eye and conducive to the enchantment which results from a well-adjusted combi- 
nation of such grotesque and fanciful objects, is not, probably, adapted to the actual 
exigencies of the plant to be placed in it ; and a necessity is, therefore, superadded 
for taking into account the habits of the species, and even, in particular cases, the 
condition of the specimen. 
Happily, the habits of Orchidacese are mostly generic, that is to say, one 
species of a genus may usually be regarded as a counterpart of the whole, with 
reference to culture ; and there are, further, many genera which may be classed 
together in a system of treatment. The great groups of epiphytal and terrestrial 
form the principal divisions ; still, although well defined as to natural character, it 
is notorious that, in practice, not a few of the epiphytes thrive better when planted 
in a suitable earth. The most palpable distinction between them is, that the 
ground-rooting species require a friable common soil, of which loam is the chief 
constituent ; while those epiphytes that will luxuriate in earth, demand a peculiarly 
fibrous and turfy heath-mould, preserved in lumps of various sizes, and interspersed 
with plenty of potsherds. 
Of the epiphytal class, again, those needing an earthy compost, are invariably 
of the pseudo- bulbous description, or furnished with bulb-like, short, swollen stems, 
above the surface of the ground ; the roots of these being descending, and their 
habit insufficiently wild and curious to allow of their being treated as pure epiphytes. 
VOL. VIII. NO. LXXXIX. q 
