June 31,1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
491 
white, the lip being pale lavender. The Rosefield varieties of 
Odontoglossum crispum are also well known for their beauty. 
—SPECIi*.IST. 
British Orchids. 
Among the many species of Orchids that are contained in our 
native flora there are several well deserving a place in gardens. 
Hardy plant borders, rockeries, and shady positions under trees 
where little else will thrive are all suitable positions for the various 
kinds, and very pleasing and interesting they are. 
Orchis maculata is one of the finest hardy Orchids, and may be 
easily established by lifting plants now in flower with good balls of 
earth and transposing them to the borders. This plant is not at 
all particular as to soil, being found wild in all kinds of positions. 
A good sound loam is, however, most suitable, and when once 
established in soil of this description it will gain strength every 
year. The fine spotted leaves and vigorous flower spikes produced 
under these conditions make this Orchid a truly ornamental border 
plant. 
Orchis pyramidalis is another beautiful kind, the rosy pink 
pyramidal spikes of flower being very attractive. This species is 
not so common as the last named, but quite as easily grown though 
not so vigorous in habit. O. conopsea is a fragrant and pretty 
Orchid. The spikes are usually from 9 inches to a foot high, of 
a delicate mauve tint. The colour of this species varies a little in 
different localities. It grows best in a rather moist peaty soil, but 
the fact of its growing and flowering freely on chalky downs and 
fields as well as in marshy copses shows that it is not fastidious 
in its requirements. 
O. mascula, the common early Orchis of our pastures, is 
greatly improved by cultivation. This species is very variable in 
colour, the tints ranging from deep purple to pure white. Large 
clumps of the pure white variety form most beautiful objects for 
the foot of a rockery. 
The Bee Orchis, 0. apifera, is becoming rare as a wild plant in 
many places, and is also one of the most difficult to cultivate. 
Very fibrous loam, peat, and sand with a few small lumps of chalk 
intermixed is the most suitable compost for this species. It 
must not suffer through want of water at the roots while growing, 
but in winter requires a fairly dry position. Listera ovata is a 
common and well known plant. The flowers are more curious 
than beautiful, being of a greenish yellow tinge. It usually flowers 
about the end of the present month. 
I have never seen Cypripedium calceolus growing wild, 
although it is a native of this country. It can, however, be pro¬ 
cured from nurserymen who make a speciality of hardy plants. 
The culture of this species is not difficult, as when once established 
on a shady border or rockery it soon increases. The crowns should 
be obtained while dormant, and planted from 4 to 6 inches deep 
in a light loamy soil. 
Habenaria bifolia is one of the very few plants that will grow 
under Beech trees. The flowers are freely produced, and are very 
fragrant and pretty. Hardy Orchids of all kinds greatly dislike 
being disturbed, therefore replant as seldom as possible, and 
avoid breaking the brittle roots. A mulch of cocoa-nut fibre 
refuse or well decayed manure should be applied to the roots in 
the summer to conserve the moisture as much as possible, and in 
winter a covering of leaves is very beneficial.—H. R. R. 
DECORATIVE BRITISH FERNS. 
{^Continued from page 447.) 
Next to the pleasure experienced by the patient and successful Fern 
banter when he succeeds in bagging some exquisite specimen of 
Nature’s abnormal fancy work in the Fern way, must certainly rank 
that which he feels when, his acquisition being duly installed and 
cherished, spores result, and in course of time he has his reward in a 
harvest of young plants, among which he finds types of even an 
advanced character and greater beauty than the parental one. All 
hobbies, of course, have their individual attractions or they would cease 
to be ridden, but I venture to assert that the Fern hobbyist who finds 
or raises a surpassingly beautiful new variety has sounder reasons for 
his enthusiasm than can possibly fall to the fortune of any specialist 
whose “rare” and “unique” gems possess no other recommendation or 
interest beyond their rarity or uniqueness. 
In the one case it is only too often the fact that no scintilla of 
artistic merit exists to justify the value set upon the acquisition. It may 
be a piece of hideous bric d-brac of which all the rest of the brood were 
happily destroyed, one only unfortunately escaping ; it may even be a 
scrap of dirty paper dignified with the name of a stamp, and elevated 
to the highest philatelic dignity because of a misprint which put all its 
companions hors de combat when the error was discovered, or it may be 
a thousand and one things of like merit. On the other band, however, 
it is some subtle touch of Nature’s hand alone which imparts the 
“ uniqueness ” and the beauty to the hunter’s “ finds,” and not only this 
but in the vast majority of cases implants within the ferny treasures 
the power of infinite multiplication, so that not merely the individual 
finder is the richer for the discovery, but he can, if sufficiently large 
minded, spread his satisfaction broadcast by enriching his friends as 
well. Nor, as we have seen, is this all, for by selective propagation for 
his new starting point, fresh developments may result, and the humble 
Fern of the wayside becomes the origin of a line of forms of truly regal 
beauty. 
Propagation by Spores. 
To commence at the beginning, however, we must first consider the 
nature of the spore, and then how to treat it so that it may develop into 
the Fern. If we examine the backs of the fronds of adult Ferns, we 
shall as a rule find them partly occupied by circular uncovered heaps of 
spores, as in the Polypodies ; by short lines on each side the midribs, as 
in the Asplenia ; by larger and longer lines, as in the Hart’s-tongue ; or 
by covered patches, as in the Buckler and Shield Ferns ; or the fronds 
may terminate in a panicle, bearing a distant resemblance to inflores¬ 
cence, as in the so-called Flowering Fern or Osmunda regalis. Each 
species, in short has its own peculiar mode of arrangement, and it is 
indeed by the form taken by the fructification that the genera are 
determined. On closer examination with a lens it will be found that 
these dot lines are not merely spores, but consist of innumerable small, 
generally brownish, capsules, in which the spores are located ; and just 
fig. 80.— odontoglossum crispum baroness SCHRODER. 
as when we sow Peas and Beans, we do not sow them in their pods, but 
shell them first, so when we design to sow Fern spores we take measures 
to have them shelled or shed as a first step in our procedure. By the 
end of June or early in July the spores of spring fronds are usually ripe, 
which may be ascertained by their capsules being brown. If now a 
frond be cut and laid between two sheets of paper in a dry place, in a 
few hours the paper will be found apparently stained with the same 
hue ; but a strong lens will reveal the fact that this stain consists of 
countless myriads of microscopic oval bodies, which are the spores in 
question. 
The next step is to take a somewhat shallow pot or pan, into which 
sufficient crocks are placed to secure drainage. The pot is then filled to 
within an inch of the rim with good ordinary Fern compost of loam,, 
fine leaf mould, and sand, topped with small nubbles of the loam. This 
is pressed fiat and fairly firm. Take then a kettle of quite boiling 
water, and after placing a small piece of paper on the surface of the 
soil to prevent washing up, thoroughly saturate the whole until the 
water runs away at a scalding temperature. By this means all worms, 
eggs of vermin, or spores of fungi are killed, and we have nothing likely 
to interfere or compete with the spores. The mistake is often made of 
merely soaking the soil with boiling water, which is not sufficient; the 
cold soil absorbs so much heat, that though the top may burn the 
finger, the effluent water will be only warm, and hence worms frequently 
escape, and eventually turn up the soil and spoil the crop. Cover the 
pan with glass, and let it cool. Then take the paper containing the 
spores, and carefully distribute them very thinly and evenly over the 
surface. Insert a label, re-cover with glass, and stand the pan away in 
some damp warm shady corner, where worms cannot reach it. 
In the course of rome fourteen days or so we shall see a faint 
greenish growth distributed over the surface, and with a glass will 
perceive that every spore is throwing out a thin blight green filament. 
This filament first lengthens and then widens, attaching itself by 
