There is at Downside a grand collection of Phalænopsids, which are especially well managed by Mr. Woolford, the gardener. They are great favourites with Mr. Lee, and he has built a house to meet their special wants. This is undoubtedly a good plan to adopt where there is such a fine and comprehensive set of plants as are to be found in this establishment, since they require different treatment to most other Orchids. They have thick fleshy leaves, and the stems of the plant are also fleshy, while, unlike many Orchids, they have no thick pseudobulbs from which to derive support; hence it follows that they require more moisture than many others. We do not, however, agree with giving them so much as we often see supplied. One great advantage of having a separate house for them is that their individual treatment and wants can be more carefully studied and more exactly met.
We have seen Phalænopsids grown well amongst other East Indian Orchids. For instance, we exhibited a plant so grown of Phalænopsis grandiflora for ten successive years at the Chiswick and Regent’s Park Exhibitions, and at several shows during each year, and it generally bore from sixty to seventy blossoms. This was the variety imported from Java, which we consider the best, as it produces more flowers than the variety from Borneo. We see that growers now-a-days are obliged to put several plants together in order to make a specimen fit for exhibition. There were others who about that time also exhibited these large plants, and, amongst them Mr. Kinghorn showed at Chiswick a wonderful specimen, bearing the best flower-spike we have ever seen.
Phalænopsis amabilis Dayana requires the same treatment as P. grandiflora and P. amabilis, and will do either in a pot, basket, or pan, suspended from the roof. It will also thrive on the side stages, but in this case requires to be elevated so that the roots can hang free, for they are abundant rooting plants. If suspended from the roof the plants have more room to throw out their thick fleshy roots, and in this way they approach nearer to the manner in which they grow in their native habitats, for they are found on the branches and stems of trees, where they obtain a free circulation of air. When thus suspended they get without restraint the fresh air that circulates through the house. They can also be cultivated on blocks, but under these circumstances they will require to be more freely supplied with moisture. These are plants that like plenty of light, but they must be shielded from the sun by shading. The best material to grow them in is sphagnum moss, with good drainage, and they require to be kept moist all the year round. In warm weather they of course require more than in winter, when just a sufficient quantity to keep the moss in a moist condition will be all that they will need. It is imperative never to allow water to reach the heart of the plant, for that will sometimes induce it to rot, and will often cause the leaves to go spotted.
The plants must, of necessity, be kept free from insects. Sometimes the thrips will attack them, but this should be cleaned off. To be thoroughly successful with Orchids they require constant watching. Cockroaches are a great pest to all those that throw out thick fleshy roots, which they injure by gnawing them off, thereby weakening the constitution of the plant. J. S. Bockett, Esq., of Stamford Hill, has one of the finest grown collections of Phalænopsis we have ever seen, but this, of course, has been in process of formation for years, and the plants have become large established specimens.
PL. 12. ONCIDIUM GARDNERI.
ONCIDIUM GARDNERI.
[[Plate 12].]
Native of the Organ Mountains of Brazil.
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs oblong-ovate, furrowed, about two inches in height, dark green, purplish beneath. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute, coriaceous, about six inches long, growing two together from the apex of the pseudobulbs. Scape one and a half foot high, including the panicle of handsome flowers, lateral, that is, springing from the base of the pseudobulbs. Flowers showy, of medium size, deliciously fragrant; sepals oblong, acute, the lateral ones semi-connate; petals twice as large as the sepals, roundish in outline, clawed at the base, the edges undulated, and as well as the bars across the sepals of a light chestnut or bronzy brown colour with a narrow margin of pale yellow; lip large, three-lobed, the middle lobe large, transversely emarginate, bright yellow, with a belt of confluent parallel oblong chestnut brown blotches just within the margin, the lateral lobes auriculæform, obsolete, yellow; the crests of the lip consist of two pairs of tubercles with the intermediate space warted. Column furnished with dwarf roundish wings.
Oncidium Gardneri, Lindley, London Journal of Botany, ii., 662; Id. Folia Orchidacea, art. Oncidium, 19; Reichenbach fil., in Walpers’ Annales Botanices Systematicæ, vi. 728.
This charming Orchid is very nearly related to Oncidium curtum, O. prætextum, and O. amictum. It belongs to an extensive genus of Vandeous Orchids, many of the species of which are exceedingly beautiful on account of the brilliancy of their flowers, which are mostly of a bright yellow colour, often prettily spotted, and generally produced in graceful spikes or panicles. No collection should be without some of the best and most ornamental of them. The figure which we now publish represents a very charming Brazilian species, one of the best forms of the plant we have seen. Our drawing was made from a specimen in the select and varied collection of W. Vanner, Esq., of Chislehurst, who was kind enough to permit our artist to avail himself of it. This collection occupies several houses which are respectively filled with species belonging to the different groups or classes, and among which are some very rare specimens, all well cultivated by Mr. Milford, the gardener, who, for many years has been a successful grower of Orchids.