this appears not to be alone advantageous to the 
growth of American shrubs, but to the Orchis and 
many other plants which usually suffer injury from 
heat in summer, or cold in winter. This corres- 
pondent says, provided moss in large quantities 
from a rocky wood, above Kirkstall Abbey : it 
comes off the rocks in large flakes, like fleeces of 
wool, and I have no doubt may be found in all 
similar places. With this moss I covered the sur- 
face of the bed two inches thick, and gave a good 
watering. My expectations were not disappointed ; 
the plants now stood the hottest sun, without flag- 
ging ; this work having been done in the height of 
summer; and the Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Daph- 
nes, Kalmias, &c., put on a most flourishing 
appearance. 
^"There is,” says Mr Appleby, ^'a tribe of plants 
which, from the curious structure of their fructifi- 
cation, is well worthy of a place in the flower 
garden, I mean the hardy Orchidaceae.” A few 
species of these were planted under moss, and they 
flowered much finer than -in a wild state, throwing 
up their flower-stems fifteen to eighteen inches 
high, and increasing at the roots three for one. 
The moss on the surface would equalize both 
the temperature and moisture, and place many 
plants, as well as Orchises, in a situation very na- 
tural to them. The Orchis latifolia may be kept 
in pots, with very little attention, so that it be not 
exposed to the sun, and suffered to become dry ; 
and the roots may be taken up from the meadows 
at any season, cleaned, and potted in peat, loam, 
and sand, and kept in a shady situation. 
