272 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



close, as it should be, this would go 

 far towards supplying the fifty de- 

 grees minimum required during the 

 night ; at least, a very slight fire late 

 in the evening would be quite enough. 

 If more than sixty degrees sun heat 

 occurred in March, a little air might 

 be given, to prevent what would, 

 under the circumstances, be an excess 

 of heat. In April a maximum of 

 sixty-five degrees, and in May of 

 seventy degrees, or rather more, 

 would be sufficient, and this would 

 serve as a guide when, and when not, 

 to admit much air, for it should be 

 recollected that the chilling of the 

 plants by over ventilation would be 

 to them a greater evil than they 

 would sustain by being kept as close 

 as an ordinary greenhouse would 

 keep them. 



One thing should be kept in mind, 

 and that is the day temperature ought 

 to be kept well up to the point, a day 

 or two at a time somewhat lower does 

 no great injury, but generally the 

 heat by day should be maintained, for 

 it is this that must be looked to, to 

 set the plants growing and to keep 

 them so. There should, therefore, be 

 a slight fire in the mornings, even on 

 fine days, for an hour or two, to get a 

 fair start; and in the case of cold, 

 dull days, the fire should be looked to, 

 to keep up about the minimum heat 

 specified. Another point ; though 

 fifty degrees is named as the minimum 

 for March, fifty-five for April, and so 

 on, the changes are not to be made as 

 sudden as the transition from one 

 month to the next, but the tempera- 

 ture should be from the first gradually 

 ascending, but in such a way that 

 these figures may about represent the 

 comparative rise. Then as to water, 

 more and more must be given from 

 time to time ; and about a fortnight 

 after the summer treatment begins, 

 the syringe may be slightly used — a 

 little gently over the plants, and more 

 fully on the paths, and walls, and 

 stages, so as to raise a moist atmos- 

 phere. At first this should be done 

 once a day, say about nine a.m., when 

 there is a nice warmth in the house ; 

 and warmed water, as before men- 

 tioned, must always be used. Subse- 

 quently — the change being brought 



about gradually — the plants may be 

 well syringed twice a day (excepting 

 those in bloom, which the syringe ia 

 apt to injure), and the paths, and walls, 

 etc., perhaps twice besides. By the 

 beginning of May, if the season is a 

 bright one, some shading is required ; 

 this is most simply afforded, by then 

 fixing permanently over the sunny 

 side of the roof a covering of thin 

 canvas, either single or folded, ac- 

 cording to its capacity for excluding 

 light ; the sun's rays should be pretty 

 well broken. Before the permanent 

 shade is requisite, it may be necessary 

 in the middle of hot days to throw a 

 mat over the glass. The shade is to 

 be removed in September, when the 

 power of the sun becomes weakened. 

 The repotting of the plants, or at least 

 rearranging, for some grow in open 

 baskets and others on blocks, is best 

 done as the plants indicate signs of 

 pushing out new growth, which would 

 in most cases be in a little time after 

 the heat was increased. In doing 

 this, the old live roots — and the more 

 of these the plants have the better-— 

 must be carefully preserved from in- 

 jury ; and the soil or moss employed 

 should always have been previously 

 warmed, so as not to chill them, The 

 epiphytal kinds grown in pots should 

 be elevated upon rough lumps of turfy 

 peat soil, made firm by little pegs, 

 and by careful arrangement ; and the 

 soil should be intermixed with lumps 

 of charcoal and broken crocks. Those 

 planted in open work baskets, of 

 whatever kind, require very turfy 

 peat, or very frequently moss is used, 

 or sometimes peat and moss together. 

 Those placed on blocks of wood have 

 a little moss fastened round their 

 roots, and they are fixed by means of 

 copper wire and copper tacks (iron 

 would rust). If some of the hand- 

 somer-looking growing mosses were 

 employed instead of dead sphagnum 

 moss, it would be an improvement. 

 The terrestrial kinds require repotting 

 ia the ordinary way, in turfy peat soil 

 well drained. Newly-potted plants 

 require very careful watering. When 

 any of the plants come into bloom, 

 they must be kept rather drier than 

 before, to preserve their blossoms. 

 {To he continued.) 



