Oct., 1892 . 
THE CULTIVATION OF ORCHIDS. 
231 
care some enemy may devour the plant or from other causes 
you may lose it. Independently of these difficulties, seed¬ 
bearing is exceedingly weakening to orchids; a weak plant 
may be killed and a strong one so injured that it will take 
several seasons to recover its usual condition. Then it is 
difficult to ensure the proper maturing of the seed pods, and 
even when these develop and ripen satisfactorily, they are 
occasionally found to contain no seeds, or only imperfect 
rudimentary bodies that will not germinate. Mr. Veitch, 
who has probably produced more hybrids than anyone, states 
that the seed pods take to ripen from four to twelve months, 
and that considerably longer periods are required to bring the 
plants from the germinating to the flowering stage, that is, 
from four to twelve years, and some have taken even longer. 
TREATMENT OF NEWLY-IMPORTED ORCHIDS. 
The peculiar conditions under which orchids are found 
wild, the manner in which they are collected, and conveyed 
long distances in boxes, etc., by mule, boat, and steamer, 
together with the radical changes they necessarily undergo 
before they are established with us, lender their treatment, 
when they first arrive, of great importance. Thousands of 
plants are sold weekly at the auction rooms and elsewhere, 
which are either immediately killed or weakened by wrong- 
treatment. As a rule, the roots of newlv-imported plants are 
all dead, and few, if any, leaves remain on such as Odonto- 
glossums, Dendrobriums, etc., although the pseudo-bulbs are 
sound. 
In selecting plants from a fresh importation, one or two 
important points should be remembered ; first, that the last 
matured pseudo-bulb is healthy and uninjured, and bears at 
its base, as I have said before, a sound eye ; secondly, that the 
plant has as much foliage as possible ; the larger the speci¬ 
mens, the more leads or eyes it should have, and if the 
pseudo-bulbs are numerous and plump the rhizomes sound 
and the eyes perfect, nothing more need be desired. 
It is always better to begin with strong plants than with 
scrappy bits, nine-tenths of which will probably come to 
nothing. 
To begin with, the plants should be carefully examined, 
and all dead roots, pseudo-bulbs, leaves, etc., cut away. A 
sharp knife should be used, and the operator must be careful 
or he will cut away eyes or living roots. Too much care 
cannot be taken over this part of the work. They should 
then be washed with soapy water. Plants should be placed 
in pots, which have been two-thirds filled with clean, broken 
crocks. Stakes may be used to keep the plants upright. In 
watering, the crocks only should be moistened until new roots 
