April 3.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
i 
members of any family in the extensive order of orchids, 
though it embraces about three thousand species, Den- 
drobium was named by Olof Swartz, a celebrated 
Swedish naturalist, and accounted the best Linnsean 
botanist of his day. He began his studies at Upsal, in 
1771, the year that Linnaeus died. Having acquired a 
taste for botany, he made several excursions in the 
north of Europe, and published his researches. He 
spent five years on the western coast of America and in 
the West Indian Islands, whence he returned to Eng¬ 
land in 1778, loaded with botanical acquisitions, and 
spent a whole year in this country examining the her¬ 
baria of Sir Joseph Banks and other botanists. On his 
return to his native country, he was appointed a Pro¬ 
fessor of Natural History at Stockholm. In his many 
works, he added upwards of fifty new genera and eight 
hundred and fifty new species to the list of flowering 
plants, besides a great number to the class of the flower¬ 
less. He also contributed largely to works devoted to 
/oology. He died in 1818, and Willdenow dedicated 
the genus Swartzia to his honour. 
Dendrobium, like nine-tenths of the names of genera 
in Natural History, is a Greek compound from denilron, 
a tree, and bios, life; alluding to the way the species live 
by clinging to the stems and branches of trees, and root¬ 
ing among dead vegetable matter, or scanty soil, that 
occupies their surface, and from which, with the humid 
atmosphere, they exclusively derive their food. In this 
respect air plants are distinguished from parasitical 
plants, which, like our own Mistletoe and the various 
species of Dodder, fasten their abortive roots into the 
wood, and live upon the sap of the individual to which 
they attach themselves. Hence it is that air plants are 
called epiphytes, and such as the Mistletoe are termed 
parasites. The second name of this Dendrobium, trans- j 
parens, is deserved, because the flowers are “ as trans- ' 
parent as anything vegetable can be.” 
All orchids, whatever, are included in 20-Gynandria j 
1-Monogynia, of the Linnsean system. Gynandria signifies | 
that the stamens and style, with the ovary, are all blended 
together into one solid mass, called the column. In this 
I column three stamens are consolidated, hut one of them 
only is fertile, having pollen. The early writers on orchids 
were in utter darkness in respect to the individual parts 
which compose the flower, and the organs and economy ot 
fructification ; but as the laws of organisation have been 
propounded and studied, old errors have been corrected by 
different writers, and it is worthy of remark that our gar¬ 
deners at first stood in the same position with respect to 
the proper modes of cultivation, and also that the true ways 
of cultivation afterwards kept pace with the progress of the 
discoveries of the organisation, or general structure of these 
plants. The methods by which we now see them brought 
to a condition of far greater splendour than they attain in 
a state of nature, have been amply explained by Mr. Appleby 
j in these pages, and are all that seem necessary for the 
| guidance of the gardener and amateur. The student of 
| botany, who may desire to be made familiar with their 
! structure, may be referred to a recent work, entitled Illustra- 
I (ions of the Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants, by 
| Bauer and Bindley. 
The genus Dendrobium comprehends nearly 150 species, 
which have been described, and, even after making a due 
allowance for duplicates, which wouldbe impossible altogether 
to avoid, they must still be very numerous; and amongst 
them are many of the finest plants in this curious Natural 
Order. They have been classed in ten sections by Dr. Bind¬ 
ley in Paxton's Flower Garden, i., 134. Dendrobes are nearly 
all Asiatic, inhabiting trees and rocks in all the damp hot 
tropical countries, and some are found a little, beyond the 
tropics in .Japan and New Holland. D. nobile withstands 
the periodical cold of Canton, in China, where it freezes 
occasionally. J). calcaratum and moniliforme grow along with 
Rhododendrons, Magnolias, and Oaks in Japan, as far north 
as the parallel of Bisbon, and are annually subject to a very 
low temperature. D. alpestre grows on the Himalaya range, 
where the snow sometimes lies in winter for a week or more. 
To the southward, as far as Port Jackson, where the mean 
temperature does not exceed 60°, Allan Cunningham found 
1). (cmnhim growing in an extremely dry atmosphere on the 
rugged trunks of the Ironbark, Eucalyptus resin if era, where it 
flourishes most luxuriantly, and flowers in summer when the 
dry north-west winds often prevail. D. vndulatum , a handsome 
species, originally discovered by Sir Joseph Banks at Bustard 
Bay, has lately been found on barren hills, naturally clear of 
timber, upon the banks of the Brisbane River at Moreton 
Bay, where the plant forms tufts on bare rocks exposed to 
the full heat of the sun, which, during nine months of the 
year, is very considerable on that part of the coast. D. spe- 
ciosum, a magnificent old plant from New South Wales, has 
only recently been domesticated, and brought to yield its 
long spikes of flowers to the industry of our gardeners. 
Such are the data of the outlying Dendrobes from the great 
body of the family. If our space allowed we might enume- 
: rate peculiarities in the different sections which have more 
local habitation. 
D. transparens is found in Nepaul, and from the Garrow 
Hills, at an elevation of 5,300 feet it was recently obtained 
by Messrs. Yeitcli and Co. through their collector, Mr, Robb, 
i It has erect, smooth, tapering stems; its leaves are willow¬ 
shaped, and rather twisted at the point. Flowers two or 
three together; sepals and petals pale lilac, somewhat like j 
I the leaves in shape, but blunter; lip pointed, downy, sides 
rolled inwards, pale lilac, with a dark lilac spot in the centre. ! 
B. J. j 
THE ERUIT-GARDEK j 
Protection to Blossoms. —“ Better late than never,” ! 
is an old maxim, and must be our apology for venturing, 
at the beginning of April, to recommend the above-named 
practice. Like root-pruning, and some other additions | 
to modern practice, the pros and cons, as to its utility, are I 
most numerous; but if a mere majority must settle it, ; 
we think the balance will be found in favour of the i 
practice. It really does seem strange, that (to take an 
isolated case) any man should doubt the propriety, or j 
sh all we say harmlessness of a gardener, with a keen north- ! 
