BRITISH ORCIIIDEtE. 
83 
BRITISH ORCHIDEiE. 
Although many unsuccessful attempts have been made to 
cultivate tlie British Orchideee, I am sanguine enough to believe 
that .the day is not distant when we shall see them grown to the 
same perfection as the once thought Invincible exotic species. 
Why cannot we grow them as we do the Cape Bulbs ? It ap¬ 
pears to me that what is essential to one must be good for the 
other; that is, a suitable soil and airy situation. I am acquainted 
with a gentleman who, some years ago, found a beautiful variety 
of Orchis maculata in the Isle of Wight. He was so delighted 
with it that he dug it up, brought it home, and planted it in his 
garden ; and from that one plant (a tuber) he has raised by off¬ 
sets at least fifty. At first he took off one offset in a year, or 
perhaps two years, and thus kept adding slowly to his stock till 
last year, when the old plant seemed to be dying, and he thought he 
would take it up to see what was the cause, when, to his surprise, 
he found a great number of small offsets. As they are some¬ 
times found growing close to each other, comparatively in lumps, 
it may be accounted for by a similar circumstance to the above. 
The same gentleman has grown other species, but not with the 
same success. I have no doubt that all of them may be grown 
and improved by cultivation ; but what I wish to urge upon your 
readers most is, to obtain varieties from seed. I have been told 
by some that they never do seed. With such persons I cannot 
agree ; for nature’s universal law says that all are made to bear 
seed after their kind. Whether they perfect their seed only in 
very favorable seasons is another question. I feel quite satisfied 
that they do sometimes seed, from the fluctuations that I have 
seen in the same localities. I should like to know if it is pos¬ 
sible to prove whether the seed is perfect or not by the aid of a 
powerful microscope. I recollect reading an account from a 
correspondent in the c United Gardeners’ Journal,’ that he had 
sown what he thought to be perfect seeds several times, but never 
succeeded in raising one plant. I saved some seed last season, 
and intend to sow it in the spring, and should I be successful, 
I will communicate to you the result. I was told the other day 
by a practical gardener that he was of opinion a British orchis 
would grow for a number of years on a square inch of ground. 
I^differ from him; for I believe they are a travelling family <5f 
