2 THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



and at night descend to 55°, without any damage — indeed, as I think, 

 with advantage — and a range of 40° in twenty-four hours is a very 

 large one. The usual plan is to keep Phalsenopsis in a very equable 

 temperature, never lower than 60° at night at any time during the 

 year ; and surprising as it may seem to many, it is to this uniform 

 system of temperature that I attribute the numerous failures to cultivate 

 Phalasnopsis grandiflora in a really satisfactory way. It is so coddled, 

 so enervated, so to speak, by a uniform high-pressure kind of tem- 

 perature, that, just as man himself does under like conditions, it 

 breaks down in health gradually, but none the less surely, simply for 

 want of that bracing exercise of all its normal functions which a wide 

 range of temperature within certain limits assuredly gives. 



Air and moisture must of course be credited with their share 

 of the work in all well-developed plant-growth, and for no plant is 

 air more essential than for the before - mentioned Phalsenopsis. As 

 an instance of this, I may mention that all last summer, from May 

 until September, I had a plant of the Javan form of P. grandiflora, 

 growing and flowering like a weed, on a shelf near the glass of an 

 intermediate Orchid-house. When I say that at times from twenty to 

 thirty-six flowers were fully expanded on this single plant at the same 

 time, it will be understood that the plant is by no means a tiny one. 

 Air was left on this house night and day all the time mentioned, and 

 special provision for airing the Phalsenopsis was made by taking a 

 pane out of the roof above the plant in an oblique direction, so that 

 rain might not fall on the crown of the plant. Thus treated, the plant 

 made three fine thick leathery leaves. A fourth leaf made its appear- 

 ance. At this stage, towards the latter end of August, the autumnal 

 rains commenced in earnest, and to save the flowers which hung under 

 the opening in the roof, the glass was replaced, and the result was a 

 leaf-growth larger than any of the other three, of a far fresher green 

 colour ; but owing to the want of air, the leaf never acquired its proper 

 leathery texture, and, of all the leaves upon the plant, is the only one 

 which became in any way blemished. Really good plants of Phalsenopsis 

 grandiflora are very rare when one takes into consideration the way 

 thousands of plants are imported into Europe every year ; and that 

 they are thus rare is, I am sure, owing to a hot, equable, and com- 

 paratively airless temperature. In nearly every collection of Orchids 

 I visited during the past autumn, I found five plants of P. amabilis 

 and P. Schilleriana ; but of P. grandiflora even presentable plants 

 were very rare. From many observations, I am certain that a hot and 

 airy day-temperature, and a cool, moist, and airy night-temperature, is 

 most essential to the permanent wellbeing of this beautiful plant. 

 High and dry night-temperatures for this and all other Orchids are 

 most fatal. In its native habitat, P. grandiflora is exposed to winds 

 for four or five months, the force and steadiness of which we have no 

 idea of in our own land. Then for the same period the plants are 



