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MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 
of its appearance. In the same house we noticed remarkably fine plants of Franeiseea latifolia and 
uniflora completely covered with bloom ; the gay Inga pulcherrima, with its crimson bottle-brush- 
like flowers ; and a number of jilants, in fine bloom, of Gesnera zebrina, one of the most useful plants 
in cultivation for winter decoration. 
Passing to the Old Pine Stove, now used for Stove plants and Orchids, we found the thii-d subject 
of our illustrations — Dendi'obium speciosum. This plant comes fi-om New Holland, and has been grown 
to its present size in the gai'den of the Society; it was growing in a pot, and was six feet in diameter; 
bore eighteen noble spikes of flowers, each spike averaging fi-om seventy to eighty flowers. It is true, 
this number is very much less than the number of spikes produced by the Rev. Mr. Chawner's plant, 
but the flowers here were much finer, of better colour, and altogether in more healthy condition. We 
had made an exti-act, on the proper management of this plant, by Dr. Lindley ; but, as space admonishes 
us, we must transfer it to the miscellaneous notices in a futm'c number. In the same house were some 
well-grown plants, of a very considerable number of kinds of Begonia, and the stages were gay with 
Gloxinias, Gesneras, Hippeastrums, &c. A singular Orchid, Spiranthes cerina was producing a 
quantity of dull brown flowers, and its beautiful foliage was just beginning to form. With this we 
also noticed Lycaste cruenta, and the singular pale green-flowered species, L. ciliata. A new Justicia- 
like plant, of free growth, the Cyrtanthera aurantiaca, was producing several spikes of duU orange- 
colom-ed flowers, not very striking, but still sufficiently showy to be worth adding to a collection as a 
winter-blooming plant; and the rare Barnadesia rosea was just going out of bloom. The little span- 
roofed Greenhouse, generally devoted to soft-wooded plants, was gay with Cinerarias, Pclai'goniums, 
&c., &-c. In Hetley's House, in addition to a number of rare seedhng Conifers, among which 
Juniperus flaocida, and the Japanese pinus, P. excorticata, which throws its old bark almost like a 
Plane tree, were not the least remarkable, we noticed the female Garrya in fidl bloom, which proves 
not so fine a thing as the male variety — the catkins being very much smaller ; Nuttalia cerasiformis, 
a rai'e slu'ub, producing a profusion of small white flowers, and a very fine herbaceous plant, Hclleborus 
olympicus, the flowers being tinged with pui-ple. 
We have a number of notes upon plants in the Conservatory, and other parts of the Gai'den, but 
these we must reserve for a second notice. — A. 
3Jiisrtll«nrntt3 Jhlim. 
G^rou-ing Orchids from Seeds. — At the present time, 
there arc few subjects connected with plant growing on 
which there is less recorded information than that of 
growing Orchids from seeds. I am not aware that there 
is any case on record of hybridisation having been 
effected among Orchids, though there seems no doubt 
that such could be accompUshed by earcfid manipida- 
tion, an inference I di'aw from reasoning analogically 
on experiments made here to get seed. Many of our 
indigenous Orchids appear to seed freely, whilst com- 
paratively few exotic species among oui" cultivated 
collections produce seed, circumstances suggestive of the 
idea that the latter require artificial assistance, which 
can he readily afforded, by carefully applying the poUcn 
masses to the viscid face of the column and rostellum. 
But whether the seeds of hardy Orchids be generally im- 
perfect, or the necessary chcumstances for vegetation, 
and the subsequent groT^'th of the young plants wanting, 
we certainly do not find crops of yoimg Orchids growuig 
spontaneously in various stages of gTowth, as occurs with 
most other endogens, though, when Orchid seed does 
vegetate under favourable cu'cumstances, a very largo 
number of the myriads of extremely minute seeds con- 
tained in the ovaries are perfect, whether artifically im- 
pregnated or not. Withia the last five years, seedlings 
of the following species have been raised m the Orcbid- 
house at Glasnevin, namely, Epidendi-um elongatum, 
and crassifolium, Cattleya, Forbesii, and Phaius al- 
bus, the seeds of which all vegetate freely. The man- 
ner of sowing the seeds, and treating the young seedlings, 
has been to allow the fine dust-like seed to fall from the 
ovaries as soon as they show symptoms of ripeness, 
which is rcadUy known by the ovai-ies bursting open on 
one side. When this takes place, they ai-e either taken 
from the plant and shaken gently over the surfaces of 
the jfther Orchid-pots, on the loose material used for 
growing them in, or on the pots prepared for the ptu-- 
pose, after which, constant shade, a steady high tem- 
perature, with abundance of moisture, are all requisites 
which are absolutely necessary to insure success. In 
the course of eight or nine days after sowing, the seeds, 
which at first had the appearance of a fine white powder, 
begin to assume a darker colour to the naked eye, and, 
if looked at with a Codrington, or even a simple lens, 
e^ddent signs of vegetation may be perceived, which in- 
crease until the protrusion of the young radicle and co- 
tyledon takes place, which varies from a fortnight to 
thi'ce weeks. From this period of theh growth, the 
young plants grow rapidly, and the rootlets lay hold of 
whatever material is supplied to them. If the seeds 
happen, either accidentally or iatontionally, to be made 
to vegetate on bare wood, as in some instances has been 
the case, the young roots extend themselves in different 
directions, adhering closely to the bark, and make great 
progress compared with the growth of the stems, thus 
affording beautiful examples of the manner in which 
epiphytical plants fix themselves so firmly on the highest 
boughs of lofty trees in tropical forests, as well as ac- 
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