52 THE GARDENER. [Feb. 



Any one who will give the first three kinds a fair trial as above re- 

 commended will, I am sure, not care to be without Pleiones as autumn 

 flowers for a long time to come. 



CffiLOGYNE CRISTATA. 



Whenever any one writes to ask the names of half-a-dozen Orchids 

 " to start with/' I always include this plant, Dendrobium nobile, Cypri- 

 pedium insigne, Odontoglossum bictonense, Phaius Wallichii, and 

 Bletia hyacinthina. If they fail with these, I advise them to give up 

 growing Orchids, and to stick to Fuchsias and Pelargoniums. 



This Coelogyne is just now unfolding its lovely white flowers, and 

 though our plants are small we have thirteen spikes on each of them, 

 which make a nice show. It is one of the Orchids that every one hav- 

 ing stove accommodation or a house kept up to 50° on winter nights 

 should grow. It does best in a pan of peat, sphagnum moss, and 

 crocks or charcoal intermixed : the bulbs and rhizomes should be 

 elevated on a low mound of compost in repotting, and the surface be- 

 tween the bulbs should be coated with bits of living sphagnum moss. 

 When growing it enjoys being watered overhead ; and if placed in a 

 cool dry house as soon as the flowers open, they will remain fresh and 

 good for twenty-eight to forty-two days. F. W. B. 



FLOWERING PLANTS FOR ROOM DECORATION. 



Of late years the demand for flowers has increased considerably, and 

 the rage for fine -foliage plants that existed but a short time ago 

 appears to be gradually on the wane, and year by year the love for 

 flowering plants and flowers in a cut state, for various purposes, has 

 increased. However beautiful foliage plants may appear, they can 

 never take the place of, or rise in public estimation to the same level 

 as, flowering plants. Many fine-foliage plants are noble objects, when 

 well grown, for associating with flowering plants and for decorative 

 purposes, and are regarded by some as beautiful as flowers. It is sur- 

 prising that at nearly all the exhibitions of late, foliage plants have 

 been shown in the greatest numbers, especially for table decoration : 

 during the past year I have not seen one flowering plant staged for 

 this purpose. This alone would almost induce one to believe that 

 they are far more popular for this purpose than flowering plants. Such 

 we do not think really is the case, and it would not be difficult to 

 point to several cases where foliage plants are only considered of 

 secondary importance, and where their use for room decoration is 

 entirely dispensed with, and flowering subjects alone used. Where two 

 hundred plants or more are in daily request for months through the 

 winter for room decoration, and all or the majority being flowering 

 plants, it is a great strain upon a gardener at times to find suitable 



