Acineta Cymbidium Peristeria
Ada Cypripedium Pescatorea
Aerides Cyrtopodium Phajus
Angraecum Dendrobium Phaio-calanthe*
Anguloa Diacrium Phalaenopsis
Anoectochilus Disa Pilumna
Ansellia Epidendrum Platyclinis
Arachnanthe Eulophia Pleione
Arpophyllum Eulophiella Pleurothallis
Barkeria Galeandra Polystachya
Batemannia Gongora Promenaea
Bifrenaria Grammatophyllum Renanthera
Brassavola Habenaria Restrepia
Brassia Houlletia Rodriguezia
Brasso-Cattleya* Ionopsis Saccolabium
Broughtonia Ipsea Schomburgkia
Bulbophyllum Laelia Scuticaria
Burlingtonia Laelio-Cattleya* Sobralia
Calanthe Leptotes Sophro-cattleya*
Catasetum Lissochilus Sophronitis
Cattleya Lycaste Spathoglottis
Chysis Masdevallia Stanhopea
Cirrhopetalum Miltonia Thunia
Cochlioda Mormodes Trichopilia
Coelia Odontoglossum Trichosma
Coelogyne Odontioda* Vanda
Comparettia Oncidium Zygo-colax*
Cycnoches Pachystoma Zygopetalum
PALMS.--These form charming table and drawing-room plants when quite
young. When more fully developed, and long before their full growth is
attained, they are among the most decorative plants known for the
conservatory and for subtropical gardening. They are easily
cultivated, but should not be allowed to become dry. The soil should
consist of about 3 parts turfy loam, 1 part leaf mould, 1 part coarse
silver sand, with enough chemical or other manure added to render the
whole moderately rich. The older plants will occasionally require the
roots pruned in order to keep them in as small pots as possible
without being starved. This should be done early in the spring, and
the plants heavily shaded until feeding roots are again produced. It
is of advantage to afford stove culture while the plants are quite
young. A little later most of the genera succeed well under moderately
cool conditions.
The following genera are among those most commonly cultivated:
Acanthophoenix Chamaerops Martinezia
Acanthorhiza Cocos Oreodoxa
Areca Corypha Phoenix
Bactris Geonoma Pritchardia
Brahea Hyophorbe Rhapis
Calamus Kentia Sabal
Caryota Latania Stevensonia
Ceroxylon Livistonia Thrinax
Chamaedorea
FERNS.--These popular plants are usually increased by means of their
spores, the "dust" produced on the back of their fronds. The spores
should be sown in well-drained pots or seed pans on the surface of a
mixture of fibrous sifted peat and small broken crocks or sandstone;
this soil should be firmly pressed and well-watered, and the spores
scattered over it, and at once covered with propagating glasses or
pieces of sheet glass, to prevent water or dry air getting to the
surface. The pots should be placed in pans full of water, which they
will absorb as required. A shady place is desirable, with temperature
of 50 deg. to 55 deg. by night and 65 deg. to 70 deg. by day, or they
may be set on a shelf in an ordinary propagating pit. The spores may
be sown as soon as ripe, and when the young plants can be handled, or
rather can be lifted with the end of a pointed flat stick, they should
be pricked out into well-drained pots or pans filled with similar soil
and should be kept moist and shady. As they become large enough, pot
them singly in 3-in. pots, and when the pots are fairly filled with
roots shift on into larger ones.
The best time for a general repotting of ferns is in spring, just
before growth commences. Those with creeping rhizomes can be
propagated by dividing these into well-rooted portions, and, if a
number of crowns is formed, they can be divided at that season. In
most cases this can be performed with little risk, but the
gleichenias, for example, must only be cut into large portions, as
small divisions of the rhizomes are almost certain to die; in such
cases, however, the points of the rhizomes can be led over and layered
into small pots, several in succession, and allowed to remain
unsevered from the parent plant until they become well-rooted. In
potting the well-established plants, and all those of considerable
size, the soil should be used in a rough turfy state, not sifted but
broken, and one-sixth of broken crocks or charcoal and as much sand as
will insure free percolation should be mixed with it.
The stove ferns require a day temperature of 65 deg. to 75 deg., but
do not thrive in an excessively high or close dry atmosphere. They
require only such shade as will shut out the direct rays of the sun,
and, though abundant moisture must be supplied, the atmosphere should
not be overloaded with it. Ferns should not be allowed to become quite
dry at the root, and the water used should always be at or near the
temperature of the house in which the plants are growing. Some ferns,
as the different kinds of Gymnogramme and Cheilanthes, prefer a drier
atmosphere than others, and the former do not well bear a lower winter
temperature than about 60 deg. by night. Most other stove ferns, if
dormant, will bear a temperature as low as 55 deg. by night and 60
deg. by day from November to February. About the end of the latter
month the whole collection should be turned out of the pots, and
redrained or repotted into larger pots as required. This should take
place before growth has commenced. Towards the end of March the night
temperature may be raised to 60 deg., and the day temperature to 70
deg. or 75 deg., the plants being shaded in bright weather. Such ferns
as Gymnogrammes, which have their surface covered with golden or
silver powder, and certain species of scaly-surfaced Cheilanthes and
Nothochlaena, as they cannot bear to have their fronds wetted, should
never be syringed; but most other ferns may have a moderate sprinkling
occasionally (not necessarily daily), and as the season advances,
sufficient air and light must be admitted to solidify the tissues.
Hardy British ferns belonging to such genera as Asplenium, Nephrodium,
Aspidium, Scolopendrium, have become fairly popular of late years, and
many charming varieties are now used in borders and rockeries. Spores
may be sown as above described, but in a much lower temperature.