AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
177 
I 860 .] 
covering the buds with two inches of soil, the 
tuber, of course, being deeper. 
Previous to planting, prepare stakes, and set 
them firmly in the ground where the plants are to 
grow. These stakes may be common cedar 
poles, six or eight feet long, or they may be 
handsome stakes of pine, planed smooth and 
painted green. If one desires to have them very 
nice, six inches of the upper part of the stake 
may be painted white, and the name of each Dah¬ 
lia written upon it. Well turned and neatly 
painted, hard wood stakes, of different lengths, are 
kept on sale by most seed dealers. 
As the plants grow, tie them to the stakes 
with bass-matting or any soft strings, continuing 
this work all Summer, or until the plants are full- 
grown. If this is neglected, one’s plants are quite 
sure to be broken down by the winds. Only one 
strong shoot should be allowed to grow on each 
root, and this should be moderately pruned of its 
lower and lateral branches. But who will show 
us how to get rid of the insects which often in¬ 
fest the flowers, just as they begin to expand, 
eating off the petals, and even boring through the 
stalks, causing them to break off? Hand-picking 
is laborious, lime-dust and ashes, and tobacco- 
water injure the blooms. If one has but a few 
plants, the flowers may be protected by drawing 
caps of gauze or lace over them. 
In the Fall, after the frosts have fairly killed 
down the tops, choose a dry day for housing the 
roots. Dig them up carefully, or you will break 
off half the tubers. Take them up in the morn¬ 
ing, let them lie in the sun and wind all day to 
dry ; then store them away in the cellar, cover¬ 
ing them with dry sand. 
Select list of Dahlias. 
From our own experience of several years, 
with the following varieties, we can earnestly 
recommend them: 
Agnes, pure white ; Aurora, orange buff; Ad¬ 
miration, white, tipped with scarlet ; Beauty of 
Bath, fine yellow ; Beauty of the Grove, salmon, 
tipped with purple ; Claudia, purple, tipped with 
white ; Incarnata, white, shaded with rosy pur¬ 
ple (extra fine); Grand Duke, purplish crimson, 
perfectly globular and a great bloomer ; Douglas 
Jerrold, buff, edged with scarlet; Forget-Me-Not, 
crimson, tipped with white ; El Dorado, fine yel¬ 
low ; Gem of the Grove, dark maroon ; Mrs. Han¬ 
sard, yellow, tipped with white ; Princess of Wag- 
ram, blush white, edged with deep rose. 
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Manure for Flower Beds. 
Enthusiastic florists will not be over fastidious 
in the use of materials necessary for their grow¬ 
ing treasures, but they maybe pardoned for wish¬ 
ing to employ the least offensive substances. 
We have seen beautiful flower beds much dis¬ 
figured by coarse stable manure spread upon the 
surface, and the perfume of the flowers did not 
always conceal a less agreeable odor. The dark 
earth found in woods, consisting mostly of decay¬ 
ed leaves and other vegetable matter, is excellent 
plant-food. It is quite extensively used in green 
and hot-houses. It is very cleanly, and gives 
that pleasant mellowness to the soil, so agreeable 
to the gardener, and so favorable to the plants. 
For more stimulating manure, dry bone sawings 
mixed with an equal part of earth, answers an 
excellent purpose. A solution of guano in water, 
though rather pungent to the olfactories when 
first mixed, is not permanently unpleasant when 
sprinkled upon the ground. A mixture of leaf 
mold, earth, and bone sawings is on the whole 
preferable. 
Orchids, or Air Plants. 
LVCUSTA DEPPII. 
The cultivation of this class of plants is rapid¬ 
ly extending in this country Where they have 
been introduced they are great favorites : an in¬ 
telligent nurseryman lately assured us that they 
will soon supersede very many varieties that have 
long been standards in the green-house. This 
he judged, from the constantly increasing orders 
received, to the comparative neglect of others 
previously in demand. 
They are commonly called air plants, from the 
fact that their roots in many instances shun con¬ 
tact with the soil, and draw their support from 
air and moisture alone. The native habitat of 
most species is in the damp atmosphere of dense 
woods, or on the banks of streams, in tropical 
climates. A large collection obtained in the for¬ 
ests of Southern Mexico, was recently disposed of 
in this city. They are mostly parasitic plants, 
being found attached to the trunks and limbs of 
trees. In these situations, they are of course sub¬ 
ject to great extremes of weather, being exposed 
during the wet season to constant drenching, and 
having to withstand months of Summer drouth. 
It is only in the former season that growth is 
made; they remain torpid the rest of the year, 
burning summer is winter to them. These re¬ 
marks are not applicable to all species ; and the 
great difficulty of maintaining an extensive col¬ 
lection consists in the variety of circumstances 
in which they grow naturally. Each kind must 
be studied and treated according to its own pecu¬ 
liar habit. 4 Some would drown where others 
would parch. 
We are indebted to Dr. Andrew Knight, for a 
description of the beautiful specimen illustrated 
above, the Lycusta Deppii. It was derived by 
propagation from plants sent by Mr. Deppi, from 
New Spain, to the Messrs. Loddeges, floricultur¬ 
ists, near London, in 1828, under whose skillful 
management it soon flowered, and was much 
admired. 
The flowers are very large and beautiful, meas¬ 
uring nearly four inches across. The sepals or 
outer coverings are three 
in number, and are of a 
dull green, spotted with 
purple. The petals are 
white, two disposed la¬ 
terally, and a lower one, 
called the labellum, or 
lip, is of a bright yellow',, 
and spotted with purple. 
In the center of the 1 
flower is a column pecu¬ 
liar to all orchids, which 
is supposed to resemble' 
some living creature, as 
birds, insects, etc. ; by 
the natives they are high¬ 
ly venerated as favorite 
offerings in worship. 
The stem, or scape as 
it is named more prop¬ 
erly, is from five to six 
inches long, and arises, 
from the base of the 
pseudo bulb (a protuber¬ 
ance resembling a bulb,)) 
having several distinct 
sheathed joints, and ter¬ 
minating with a single 
flower. A fine specimen 
plant of half a dozen 
bulbs, bearing from six 
to eight stems and flowers from each bulb, 
makes a most splendid display. In June last,, 
a fine plant bearing about thirty flowers, was, 
shown at one of our exhibitions. 
This species grows well when fastened firmly' 
on a compost of broken pieces of fibrous peat the 
size of walnuts ; intermixed with moss and 
broken pieces of flower pots, which permits the 
water to escape freely, whilst the moss maintains 
a uniform moisture, and more especially, if put 
into wire baskets in a moist atmosphere. It pre¬ 
fers a temperature of from 65° to 70° Fahrenheit. 
— - — -- — -- - 
Tritoma TJvaria. 
This is one of the newer plants which ama¬ 
teurs will do well to procure. An English au¬ 
thority speaks of it as “ the king of all plants for 
out-doors.” Another says: “It is the most 
beautiful hardy perennial now seen in a visit to 
the Kew Gardens.” It often has from thirty to 
forty spikes of flowers, from four to six feet high, 
the petals of a brilliant orange red. Using this 
as a center plant on a circular bed, and sur¬ 
rounding it with Lobelia grandiflora and golden 
Calceolaria, is said to produce a fine effect. 
Some of our enterprising florists have in¬ 
troduced one or two varieties of it within the 
past year. The last Report of the Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society, describes it as follows : 
“The root of the plant resembles that of the New- 
Zealand Flax; the leaves are very long, proceeding 
from the crown of the plant, tough and fibrous,, 
of a dark, clear green, the two edges raised, so. 
as to present a channeled center; from the 
midst of the crown of leaves proceeds the flow¬ 
er stem, which grows three [or more] feet high;, 
and is often an inch in diameter, very stout and! 
erect. The flowers are produced in a whorledl 
close head, about eight inches to a foot in length,, 
and continue a fortnight or more. *»**•• 
The plant perfects seed freely, and is propagated, 
by seed and by offsets, which are produced from: 
the crown of the plant. * * * Thi3 very or¬ 
namental and desirable plant is hardy in Eng- 
