

^i\'i . 



THE 



GARDENER 



JANUARY 1881. 



ORCHID -CUIi TUBE. 



HE culture of Orchids is every day becoming more and 

 m.ore popular, and in many cases, we may add, more and 

 more successful. Yet there is still remaining in numer- 

 ous instances ample room for further improvement, and 

 our present object is to suggest the direction whence 

 more satisfying results are to be obtained. It is now pretty generally 

 ceded by all good cultivators that the night - temperature of plant- 

 houses should be lower than during the daytime. Nature all the world 

 over cools down her temperature after sundown ; and even in the 

 tropics, near the line, there are altitudes of a few thousand feet at 

 which, during clear nights, radiation is so great that at daybreak one's 

 teeth chatter, and a fire is the greatest comfort one can have. My 

 own experience of Orchids, under the most variable of conditions both 

 abroad and at home, leads me to say that, even for the hottest of low- 

 land East Indian and African species, a high temperature and an 

 airless condition during night is far from being as beneficial as is by 

 many supposed. Everyday practice has shown to me very clearly, and 

 I doubt not but that the idea has occurred to others also, that those 

 Orchids are most permanently robust and healthy which have been 

 gradually and carefully inured to a wide range of temperature. That 

 this is true of men and other animals is a well-known fact. To illus- 

 trate my meaning I will take Phalaenopsis grandiflora as an example. 

 In hot summer weather, when growing, the thermometer during bright 

 sunlight may run up to 110° with advantage, provided the plants are 

 moderately shaded ; while, during winter nights, I never feel the 

 slightest anxiety when the thermometer has not descended below 48°. 

 In May, during hot days, the thermometer may run up to 95° or 100°, 



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