The Lady's Country Companion; Or, How to Enjoy a Country Life RationallyLoudon, Mrs. (Jane)
General
The Lady's Country Companion; Or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally
Loudon, Mrs. (Jane)
Cooking; Country life; Home economics
The orchidaceous plants grown in a _damp stove_ are all epiphytes,
which, in their natural state, grow either on the branches of trees,
or on exposed rocks. The former of these are found in their wild state
with their roots hanging down in the air, and growing in dense forests,
where shade, moisture, and excessive heat are essential to their
existence. Most of these plants, in a state of culture, are grown in
the husks of cocoa-nuts, half filled with moss, from which the roots
hang down, or they are tied with wire to pieces of wood hung from the
rafters. The wood generally preferred for this purpose in England
is the robinia, or false acacia, on account of the roughness of its
bark, and the softness of its wood: and moss is generally put between
the epiphyte and log so as to make it quite compact. Some genera of
orchideous plants, such as Dendròbium, Epidéndrum, and Cattlèya, are
always grown in pots, which are filled with turfy peat, chopped moss,
and lime rubbish. Others, such as Stanhòpea and Catasètum, should be
grown in baskets half filled with moss, or in a curious kind of frame,
made of pieces of turf fastened between four upright pegs of wood; as
the flowers of these plants come from their roots, and they must be
allowed abundance of room to enable them to protrude properly. The
baskets or frames for the Stanhòpea and other root-flowering plants
should be from three to six inches deep, and from six to ten inches
wide; and the frames should be filled with strips of turf, two or three
inches wide, piled up on one another so as to fill the frame, and yet
leave a sufficient space between to admit the passage of the flower
stems which protrude downwards from the root. When orchideous plants
are grown in pots, the pots are drained with cinders, and then filled
with chopped turf mixed with lime rubbish to keep it open. The exotic
ferns grown in the same house require no particular care, except that
of potting them so as to insure perfect drainage, and keeping them
frequently syringed overhead.
There may be said to be five kinds of greenhouse; viz., the Australian
house, the common greenhouse, the heath house, the conservatory, and
the orangery, to which is sometimes added, the camellia house, though
these plants are generally kept in the conservatory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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