THE FLOEAL WOKLD AND GAKDEN aUIDE. 171 



with a rise to 70' in very hot weather. This temperature will be 

 sustained with the help of but little fire-heat, for the solar heat after 

 April will be quite sufficient, excepting an occasional sharp frost 

 sets in during May, when a little fire will be needed. The atmo- 

 sphere must be kept charged with moisture, by pouring plenty of 

 water upon the path and floor in addition to the stages. In skilful 

 hands, a syringing overhead in the afternoon of hot bright days 

 will be beneficial ; but I am afraid to recommend it here, in case any 

 beginner should overdo it, and ruin the collection. Keep the soil 

 in which the plants are growing moist, but not wet, for if they are 

 kept too wet every root will perish. Soft water should be used, and 

 should be a few degrees warmer than the temperature of the house. 

 In the winter very little water will be required — ^jiist sufficient to 

 keep the bulbs plump. The plants will suffer more from having too 

 much than too little. The temperature from October to the end of 

 JFebruary should range from 45' to 50', but be kept within these 

 limits, and the atmosphere kept much drier. 



Potting plants, and the most suitable material for the purpose, 

 must next engage our attention. All the species which I shall name 

 will thrive well in a mixture of peat and sphagnum moss, thoroughly 

 incorporated together, after the peat has been broken up roughly 

 and the fine soil removed. It is often a very difficult matter to 

 procure good peat, and unless the peat is good and fall of fibre, it is 

 worse than useless, for it will soon go sour, and nothing will then 

 thrive in it. When this is the case, procure some short cocoa-nut 

 fibre, and use it with the moss, in the same proportions as peat. 

 This short fibre must not be confounded with the " refuse," for it is 

 a different material altogether ; the one being the clippings from the 

 mats when they are trimmed up, and the other is a brown powdery 

 substance derived from the husks when they are crushed in the mill. 

 The fibre should be well moistened before its amalgamation with the 

 moss, and then the process can be completed with but little trouble. 

 All the orchidaceous plants will root freely and grow well in the 

 mixture of moss and fibre. The pots should be filled to within three 

 inches of the rim with rough pieces of crocks, and the plants potted 

 firm and sufficiently high for the base of the bulbs to stand three or 

 four inches above the level of the top of the pot, to prevent moisture 

 settling about them, which mishap would in all probability cause 

 the loss of the entire plant. The pots must be stood upon inverted 

 flower-pots or saucers, to allow the free escape of the Avater. I must 

 not forget to add, that the best time for repotting is just before 

 the plants begin to make new growth, in the case of inexperienced 

 cultivators ; but with skilful hands, after the roots begin to elongate 

 is a capital time. The plants should be placed in a cool dry house, 

 if convenient, when they are in bloom, for the flowers last in per- 

 fection much longer, as damp is so very injurious to them. Many 

 of them can be removed to a sitting-room through summer without 

 receiving any harm ; the chief point is to keep them dry, and out of 

 cold draughts. If they remain in the house in which they are 

 growing, they should be removed to the coolest end, and care be used 

 to prevent splashes of water falling on the flowers. 



