178 
THE FLORISTS JOURNAL, 
have been made upon a comparatively limited scale ; and much 
more requires to be done before it can be brought within the 
limits of the philosophy of nature. A beginning has however 
been made, and after the lapse of future years and ages it may 
be brought to something like philosophy. When we seek to 
investigate the original cause of this breaking of species of plants 
into varieties, whether naturally, or by artificial treatment, w r e 
find the very commencement involved in the greatest obscurity. 
That there is in the species a constitutional tendency thus to 
break, we must admit; but we cannot always or easily find out 
the agents which act upon this disposition. We believe we may 
say that a plant which will grow naturally either in a moist or a 
dry situation, varies in appearance in these — the individual 
growth predominating in the moist, and flowering in the dry ; and 
that, in proportion as the situation is drier and warmer in the 
flowering season, the tones of colour are more intense, and tend 
nearer to the warm or red end of the solar spectrum. 
The subject is, however, one of very great difficulty, as well 
as importance; and on this account, as well as from our being- 
limited as to room, we must take it by small portions at a time. 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF BRASSIA. 
BY MR. DON. 
This genus is very near Oncidium in habit, but differs slightly 
in the form of the flowers. In my opinion, it is only a sectional 
division of the genus Oncidium, and ought never to have been 
separated from it; but as it is considered a genus, we shall speak 
of it as such. The pots or baskets in which it is grown should 
never be over large. If the plants are to be grown in pots, the 
pots should never be wider than a 24-sized pot, but should be 
more shallow, as they never require any great quantity of peat 
for their roots to run in. In potting of them, they should never 
be raised but very little above the rim of the pots. The pots 
should be well filled up with potsherds to within an inch and a 
half of the top ; and the plant then should be placed in the centre, 
and the lower buds kept above the rim, so as to prevent their 
