tSSt.] orchids. 51 



liave before remarked, they require very careful watering until the 

 roots gain strength with the lengthening. On the judicious starting 

 of Pleiones and Calanthes much of the success of after- culture de- 

 pends. This much is true of most other things, but I think it applies 

 with more than ordinary force to these, since no amount of careful 

 after -culture can with them make up for a bad start. Instead of 

 using the watering-pot, just now, we rather trust to sprinkling 

 the mossy surface once or twice daily with a fine -rosed syringe, 

 not using sufficient water to risk its settling down into the heart of 

 the young growth, and so causing rotting. On very dull or wet days 

 we omit syringing altogether, and no doubt this may general] y be 

 done with advantage. As growth commences to strengthen, however, 

 and the roots to form a network amongst the moss, and the sun be- 

 comes hotter and the days longer, not only may the water-pot be 

 freely used overhead with advantage, but it will often become neces- 

 sary to dip the pans entirely in tank or cistern to make sure of the 

 earth being moist throughout. The greatest care must ever be exer- 

 cised in keeping thrips, green-fly, and red-spider at bay ; and syringing 

 morning and evening, with plenty of air on by night as well as by day 

 all through the summer months, is the best safeguard against insect 

 enemies. As the foliage turns brown at the tips, do not be tempted to 

 withhold water too suddenly. Syringe as usual, but do not soak the 

 compost too much with the water-pot. Keep the compost moist, and 

 no more. If this is judiciously done, the brown tips will extend down 

 the foliage towards the bulbs very slowly, and this is very essential, as 

 the bulbs are now "plumping up " or fattening themselves out so as 

 to be able to take a few weeks' rest, and then push up their lovely 

 Crocus -like flowers. On careful and timely starting and judicious 

 resting the whole success in Pleione - culture rests, and the other 

 routine culture is of easy management, being simply that of other 

 stove or warm greenhouse plants, — careful watering, syringing, and 

 general cleanliness. 



A word as to the kinds grown may be of service. P. lagenaria is the 

 strongest grower, and the most generally useful of the whole group. 

 It is to Pleiones what " nobile " is to Dendrobiums. Then P. praecox, 

 or as it is otherwise called P. Wallichiana, is a good free grower, and 

 very effective. P. maculata, being mostly white, is useful for cut, 

 or rather pulled flowers ; for I must not forget to say that Pleione 

 flowers are best if pulled gently from the plants, being careful to pull 

 in the line of upward growth. The flowers come out of their sheath- 

 ing bracts — ^just like Lily of the Valley spikes when pulled instead of 

 cut — and the result is longer and more useful stems. P. humilis is a 

 pretty pink -flowered kind, and P. Reichenbachiana, P. Hookeriana, 

 P. Arthuriana, P. tricolor, and one or two others, are as yet too rare 

 and expensive for any but the most zealous of Orchid-growers and 

 amateur cultivators. 



