■ huy iw 
EXCELSIOR 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in ttie year 1ST0, by D. D. T. Moohe, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.] 
“ In a catalogue of plants found in the 
neighborhood of Faversham, in the county 
of Kent, hy Mr. E. Jacob, in 1788, that 
author figured a double-flowered variety of 
the 0. Morio, (of which our engraving is a 
copy,) and a few of which then grew in a 
meadow near Cades, in Ospringe. Some 
years since Dr. Pateuson of the Bridge of 
plants, and to place them 
properly in the strongest 
mass of soil in a given bulk. 
Il has been already inti¬ 
mated that thy rose upon 
its own roots is the only 
legitimate form for grow¬ 
ing in pots. Lot such, then, 
be obtained, healthy and 
well developed, with three 
of four leading shoots and 
abundance of fibrous roots ; 
we have next only to pro¬ 
cure the pots and compost.” 
w Proper rose-pots are dif- 
ferently shaped to the or- 
din ary kinds; they are 
widish at the bottom, so as 
^ to hold the greatest pos¬ 
sible quantity of earth. 
Choose them large and 
dean, and then make ready 
Our favorites’ food. The 
• v s\ best method of draining the 
pots is to place an oyster 
^ shell over the hole in the 
jtK V bottom, and to till up for 
W |\ two or three inches with 
~J> II knobs of charcoal ancl bro¬ 
il lceu bones. These are much 
better than potsherds, in¬ 
asmuch as they afford a 
certain amount of nutri¬ 
ment, as well as serving for 
5S. filtering purposes. Over 
these should lie arranged 
some lumps of half-rotted 
turf from a fat, loamy pas- 
turn, well saturated with 
AA liquid manure, the renmiu- 
w ingcompost, being a mixture 
of hearty loam, somewhat 
rough, and well decomposed 
manure. Pot firmly, but 
not adhesively. 
“ IL is surprising how the 
roots "will multiply and 
spread in such a mixture, 
Supplying abundant foliage 
above, and in due season a 
copious produce of well- 
developed blooms. The 
operation being completed, 
the plants may be consigned 
to a pit or the greenhouse; 
or, if such accessories be not 
at command, they may be 
set on a bottom of coal- 
ashes, and plunged in cocoa- 
nut refuse, with hoops 
placed over so as to allow of 
mats being used as a protection, when neces¬ 
sary, from the frost; this latter operation, 
however, is only necessary in case of tender 
kinds. 
ORCHIDS 
Op late years orchids have grown in favor 
among florists in this country. The early 
notion that they were difficult plants to 
manage is proven false. They are easily 
grown with any collection of stove plants, 
Fleming says, speaking of the culture of 
Epiphytal Orchids, where a temperature is 
maintained at G0 J to 80 J , or 70° in summer 
and 55" to 70' in winter for the Indian va¬ 
rieties, and 45" to 00" in winter and 55° to 
75° in summer for the South American. 
The house ought to be shaded in summer. 
Fleming says, in “ Practical Floriculture,” 
that he found that by placing them in per¬ 
forated pots or baskets he was enabled to 
keep the roots moist and give plenty of air, 
and the plants improved daily. For potting 
he used a very fibrous kind of turf from a 
dry part of a fresh water swamp?- This, 
mixed with sphagnum, broken pots and 
charcoal in lumps, is the best mixture he 
ever tried. The plant should be raised well 
above the level of the pot or basket, so that 
no water may lodge around its neck, and 
the mixture built so as to hold it firmly in 
its place ; and to give a neat, fresh-like ap¬ 
pearance, chop some green sphagnum up 
flue and put a layer *over the whole. The 
best material for baskets is locust or red 
cedar, as they last long and are not apt to 
he attacked by insects. 
In potting Terrestrial Orchids, Fleming 
says“ Place them a little below the level 
of the pot (the same as any ordinary pot, 
and not raised as for the Epiphytal ones) in a 
compost of rough turfy loam, leaf-mold, 
sand, and broken pots, and subject them to 
the same temperature as the Epiphytal spe¬ 
cies. Water and syringe early in the morn- 
iug, so that the sun may soon dry the foliage. 
When the growing season is over, gradually 
lower the temperature and decrease the 
quantity of water ; during the period of rest 
use very little water, just enough to keep 
the pseudo buds from shriveling. The best 
period to rest orchids is from November to 
March.” 
In the -work above named, Fleming gives 
lists of the most showy and easily cultivated 
kinds. Among the list of Indian Orchids 
given, is Dcndrobrium while , illustrated here¬ 
with. This, Mr. Fleming informs us, is one 
of the most beautiful and easily grown. It 
is purple, cream and white. We have a 
few native orchids, of which we shall have 
something to say hereafter. Our purpose 
now is to say something of the 
Urilisli Orchids. 
Willi a m Gokkle, in a late issue of the Ed¬ 
inburgh Farmer, says: 
“ British botanists describe about two score 
of indigenous species of the true orchises and 
their family allies; besides which, there are 
a good many varieties, differing less or more 
from their types in form and structure; and, 
what is of more importance to the mere 
flower lover, there are many sub-varieties 
distinguished hy the great diversity of their 
general colors, as well as of their colored 
markings. Commencing with the earliest, 
and certainly not the least showy kinds, we 
have in May and June, the Orchis Morio, 
common in the chalk districts of England; 
and 0. mascula, frequent in dry, sunny pas¬ 
tures throughout the length and breadth of 
our island, Botli have usually rich purple 
colored dowel’s, which a closer inspection 
shows to be beautifully marked with streaks 
or spots, but they frequently present differ¬ 
ent shades of light rose color, and are more 
rarely pure white. In both, the leaves are 
usually green, but they are occasionally more 
or less blotched and spotted with brownish 
black, these spots being sometimes large in 
size, and very showy. 
DOUBLE-FLOWERED ORCHIS MORIO. 
Allan, also found a double-fiowerecl 0. mas¬ 
cula, in the neighboring parks of Keir. This 
shows that although remarkably rare, double 
orchises are not altogether a myth, and 
double forms may yet be found of all the 
others, as well as of those two; hence, so to 
speak, the field for orchis research becomes 
doubled, as this property or peculiarity may 
extend to all the other species and their 
varieties. 
“Anything like a description of all the 
native orchids would far exceed our limits; 
but coming in succession to the preceding, 
we may mention the still more common 
Orchis mamlatu , and O, latifolia, both with 
their corresponding variations in form and 
color of their flowers and foliage. Among 
the fragrant kinds, Qymnadenia conopsea, an 
inhabitant of dry, hilly pastures, stands con¬ 
spicuous. 
“Then come the white butterfly orchises, 
Uabcmria bifolia, and H. chlorantha. The 
beautiful rosy purple, O. pyramidalis, and the 
fragrant Lady’s Tresses, Neutlia spiralis , both 
flowering in July and August, are common 
in the South, but the former rare in Scot¬ 
land. Epipactis is a handsome growing 
genus, though less showy in the flowers than 
some others; Cypripediwm calceolm, or Lady’s 
Slipper, is not only the largest flowered 
orchid, but one of the most beautiful and 
FLORAL NOTES 
AhIoi-m nn«l Plant Lice. 
A strong solution of tobacco water with 
a little whale oil soap added, sprinkled over 
the plants with a watering pot is a remedy 
used hy gardeners. 
Tuberoses for Winter Flowering 
should be planted this month. They may 
be planted on benches in the green-house, 
filled five or six inches deep with well pre¬ 
pared rich soil. Let them have full expo¬ 
sure to the open air. This in answer to 
Emma Huntington. 
The Oreiton Lily, 
a native, says the Willamette Farmer, is 
most beautiful. Its foliage is very much like 
that of the choice Japan Lily—its flowers, 
sometimes a dozen or more in number, on 
one stalk, are while, sometimes sprinkled 
with red spots, change to a pink color when 
they fade —and are exquisitely fragrant. 
They can be found wild in many parts of 
Oregon. 
TO GROW POT ROSES 
True English Gardeners’ Magazine says:— 
“ Many elaborate directions for the prepara¬ 
tion of Boses for pot-culture are given by 
various authorities, but they all resolve 
themselves into two principles—to get strong 
TPn1 y,«,. (».T.OO PER YEAR. 
I LUIiIS. j single Ao„ Eight Cents, 
NEW YORK CITY AND ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
nrrTrrc j41 Pnrli Row, IMew Yorlc. 
I Si Buffalo St., Rochester. 
YOU. XXII. NO. L 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JULY 23, 1870. 
WHOLE NO. 1070. 
