ISO 
AXACAMPTIS PYRAMIDALIS. 
kind. It requires a somewhat shaded situ- 
ation, and a light cool soil ; it flourishes well 
in peat soil, or where peat earth predominates. 
The chief requirements are coolness in sum- 
mer, and shade from intense sun heat. Young 
plants may be obtained by dividing the root, 
when there are offsets to take away ; this is 
best done about August, which gives the 
young plants time to get established before 
winter. It also ripens seeds, which should be 
sown soon after they ripen, either in pots or a 
shady border ; if these young plants are much 
exposed to the sun, they are almost sure to 
perish, so impatient are they of heat. Young 
plants are often lost through their being 
planted in dry soil in a sunny part of the gar- 
den. If the seeds are sown in autumn the 
young plants may be removed to the borders 
where they are to remain by the autumn fol- 
lowing. 
Some seedlings of increased size, superior- 
form, and affording variety of colour, have 
already been obtained. Why, therefore, 
should not the American cowslip become a 
florist's flower, and afford a still further variety 
of beautiful forms ? The same principles of 
improvements which have, in so many other 
cases, proved successful, must be followed 
here. "What would constitute an improve- 
ment on the present flowers must be settled, 
and as any seedling approaches the standard 
of ideal perfection, this must be regarded as 
one sure step of the journey, and should lead 
to another, and again another, till the end is 
attained. "Wherever improvement is mani- 
fest, that plant or that individual blossom 
must supply the future seed, and so by con- 
tinually sowing the seed of those which mani- 
fest any degree of improvement over the 
previous races, a very considerable and per- 
manent change for the better — or, at least, an 
advance towards the ideal perfection — will be 
wrought. We have qualified the expression, 
" change for the better," because it might be 
the class of florists alone who would so regard 
it. The flower is in its present state beautiful 
and perfect in the estimation of the lovers of 
simple nature. 
Of the more distinct garden varieties which 
have been raised, the following may be no- 
ticed : — albiflorum, with white blossoms ; 
elegans, rosy-coloured, deeper than the origi- 
nal plant ; giganteum, lilac, with an increase 
of size ; and lilacinum, which also bears lilac 
flowers. Another species called Dodecatheon 
integrifolium, which bears light purple flowers, 
is also in our gardens, having been introduced 
from North America in 1829. 
The American cowslips belong to the same 
natural family — Primulaceae — as our common 
primroses and cowslips. 
AXACAMPTIS PYRAMIDALIS. 
This is one of the pretty little English 
Orchids which are sometimes seen cultivated 
in pots, and which deserve to have a per- 
manent place in our gardens. It is sometimes 
called Orchis pyramidalis, having formerly 
borne that name ; but most modern botanists 
see cause to station it in the genus Ana- 
camptis, which is named from the Greek 
word anakam/pto, to bend back, in allusion 
to the position of its pollen masses. 
The plant may be described as a tuberous- 
rooted perennial, producing a stem from twelve 
to eighteen inches high, with linear-lance- 
shaped leaves, from the centre of which rises 
the flower stem, bearing at the top a large 
broadly-ovate close spike of flowers, of a 
delicate rose colour, in some varieties white. 
The tubers grow in pairs, and are of a 
roundish ovate, or oblong form ; one of these 
tubers is that of the growing plant, the other 
the young one forming to succeed it. The 
tubers of some allied species of orchids, 
furnish the article salep. 
A. pyramidalis is found in meadows and 
pastures, chiefly in calcareous soils ; it is met 
with both in England and Scotland, and flowers 
in the months of June and July. 
The culture of the terrestrial native Or- 
chises has never been very successfully prac- 
tised, although numerous attempts have been 
made. Under these circumstances, it seems to 
offer peculiar inducements to the amateur 
cultivator, to whom a difficulty to be over- 
come offers merely an incitement to exertion. 
The best guide in these matters is nature. 
What can we learn from her ? In the first 
place the plant grows most commonly — not 
exclusively, for Hooker records it as growing 
also in clayey soil — in calcareous soils, that is 
soils of a chalky character. In most places 
it is not difficult to obtain such soils to plant 
them in ; and where it is least convenient, the 
requisite can be imparted by mixing pounded 
or broken chalk, and effete lime with a portion 
of pure loam. Again, they grow in meadows 
and pastures, and, therefore, do not require 
shade ; but it must also be recollected that 
the surface of the soil in such places is covered 
Avith a mantle of verdure, which, though it 
does not shade the growing plant, acts in a 
peculiar way in sheltering the roots while in 
a dormant state, and the probability is that 
much advantage is derived in the shape of 
protection from excessive heat, while they are 
dormant in the latter part of the summer. 
Whenever they are cultivated in the garden, 
it would, therefore, seem desirable to secure 
them a calcareous soil, and also to cover the 
surface of the bed with turf like a lawn. A 
portion of the lawn might be prepared and 
