ONCIDIUM PAPILIO BEDDING OUT VKRBENAS. 
205 
they sometimes, but riot often, miss, and lose 
their market ; but for families where the pines 
are wanted at any and all seasons, and where 
they rather pride themselves on large fruit, 
the disrooting must be wrong. 
If we had to re-pot pines as we do all other 
plants, we should save every fibre, and not 
disturb the ball in the least. We should care- 
fully grow, without the slightest check, every 
plant we had. We should decide on adding 
tan, but not removing nor disturbing a single 
plant. We are of opinion that there is not 
half enough done with second growths. It is 
somewhat descending to go from a pine-apple 
to a cabbage ; but we have seen all the sprouts 
but one rubbed off the stump of a cabbage- 
crop, and the whole earthed up well, and hoed 
between ; and, with here and there a miss, a 
finer second crop than a first lias been the 
result. This is not a common pi-actice ; but 
we were reminded of the cabbages by the fact 
stated by Mr. Hamilton, namely, that " the 
pine-apple has been cultivated for a long time 
in Jamaica and Calcutta, in a manner similar 
to cabbages in this country ;" and seeing the 
waggon-loads that arrive now, we might 
almost add, that they are almost sold and eaten 
like cabbages. We have seen old plants that 
have for years gone over without, produce 
enormous fruits when planted out in a pre- 
pared pit, with the ordinary soil used for pot- 
ting ; but, until Mr. Hamilton's work ap- 
peared in 1844, we were not aware that the 
plant would luxuriate so much in fresh tan. 
We have, however, seen a little of this dispo- 
sition, when the pots have been low in the 
tan-bed, and the roots have run out in all 
directions in a short time. 
Mr. Hamilton places the qualities of certain 
varieties of the pine-apple in a different rank 
to most writers ; but, looking at the practical 
knowledge which he unquestionably pos- 
sesses, we give them as he places them, and 
the more readily, because they are differently 
valued, and because we cannot help looking 
upon his opinion as an authority. He places 
them thus : — 1, Montserrat ; 2, Sierra Leone ; 
3, Black Jamaica ; 4, Black Antigua ; 5, En- 
ville ; 6, New Providence ; 7, White Bar- 
badoes ; 8, Old Queen ; 9, Ripley Queen ; 
10, Brown Sugar-loaf; 11, Green Provi- 
dence ; 12, Welbeck Seedling ; 13, Globe ; 
14, Havannah Smooth ; 15, King; 16, Brown- 
striped Sugar-loaf ; 17, Blood -red. He says : 
" I have arranged them according to the esti- 
mation each variety is held in. I am aware 
that it is a far different arrangement from 
what many talented writers have previously 
made." However, as talented writers who 
have preceded Mr. Hamilton are rather con- 
spicuously opposed to each other in very im- 
portant points, and all cannot be right, we 
would sooner take Mr. Hamilton's summary 
of the several qualities than any other. Very 
few pine-apples are eaten in perfection, com- 
pared with the great number consumed ; and 
those only who have had all in perfection, can 
rightly judge of their several qualities. 
ONCIDIUM PAPILIO. 
The Butterfly -plant of the Nurseries. 
Perhaps among all the extraordinary pro- 
ductions this beautiful plant may be set down 
as the most splendid, if not the most gaudy ; 
so much is the flower like a golden butterfly 
with expanded wings, and so naturally does 
it flutter on the least circulation or admission 
of air to the house, that a person unacquainted 
with the plant would fancy at once that it was 
a gaudy fly hovering over the adjoining plants. 
It has long wiry stems, standing eighteen 
inches or more above the plant, and the flower 
at the smallest distance appears to hover in 
the air, for the stem can hardly be seen ; 
nevertheless, it is one of the commonest of the 
orchidaceous plants, and from that circum- 
stance is not held in one half the estimation 
it deserves. The culture is simple : — it re- 
quires moist stove heat, but we have seen it 
luxuriate in a vinery where grapes are forced, 
and grown well in a common dung bed with 
the flower stems held down by hooks to keep 
the flowers from damage by touching the glass. 
To those who have a stove kept moderately 
moist, this plant is one of the most pleasing 
and gratifying that can be introduced, and we 
strongly recommend everybody who can pro- 
cure as many, to grow half-a-dozen plants. It 
may be grown in pots filled with lumps of 
turfy peat, one half the pot being occupied 
with broken potsherds, or crocks ; the lumps 
of peat should be pegged together high above 
the pot, that is, piled up in the form of a cone. 
The plant is to be pegged among the top 
pieces of peat, so that it cannot be tumbled 
over, but as it lives upon the atmospheric 
moisture rather than on anything it finds 
among the peat, it would grow if fastened on 
the stump of an old tree, or rather a block cut 
from it, and even on a bit of moss fastened on 
a wall ; the pot is recommended for the con- 
venience of shifting about, and removing it 
from one place to another. 
BEDDING OUT VERBENAS. 
The numerous varieties of this constant 
little flower, however beautiful they appear in 
the bunches exhibited on a stand, are calculated 
to defeat the object of the cultivator, from 
their remarkably different habits, and no one 
ought to use them for their colour without well 
knowing their growth. Some creep along the 
