i88i.] LYCASTE SKINNERIL 487 



as possible. In such frames they do just as well as on a wall, if the 

 branches are trained over a layer of old Pea-sticks, or something of that 

 kind. A house or pit, that could be built for perhaps ^'100, 1 estimate, 

 would .produce nigh upon £100 worth of fruit in the season, and one 

 man could attend to a number of such houses. One year I saw a num- 

 ber of plants in a nursery near Manchester, that were being prepared 

 for winter forcing, as the price expected then was 2s. 6d. per lb. ; but 

 the most profitable season to grow them is during spring, summer, and 

 autumn : during the dark days of winter they do not bear abundantly 

 enough to pay. J. S. W. 



[There can be no doubt that many who are now marketing second 

 and third rate Grapes would make more money by devoting their glass 

 to Tomatoes, which are only beginning to be relished, for it is only 

 really first-class Grapes that pay now; and Tomatoes are so much more 

 easily managed, that where first-class Grapes cannot be grown, almost 

 any one, as J. S. W. says, can produce good crops of Tomatoes. — Ed. J 



LYCASTE SKIWK"EIIII. 



Wheee really refined flowers are in request, it is found that it " pays " 

 to grow a good many kinds of Orchids. Masses of Dendrobium nobile, 

 Coelogyne cristata, Lycaste Skinnerii, and a great many more, pro- 

 duce flowers in quantities of an extremely valuable kind during 

 winter when flowers of any kind are scarce and most appreciated ; and 

 not only so, but those of most kinds will last for a very long time 

 compared with others. Roses, Eucharis, Lily of the Valley, &c., 

 may be as beautiful and as acceptable as the Orchids named, indeed, 

 must be ; but how very fugitive they are compared with Lycaste 

 Skinnerii, or Dendrobium nobile, the flowers of which last for weeks 

 and even months ! Even the old Cypripedium insigne is by no means 

 to be despised; and then, how long the bloom of it lasts in perfection ! 

 We have known them put into glasses, kept there for a week or two, 

 thrown out among other waste flowers, gathered out of the dust-bin, 

 kept a fortnight, sent in again, and last another fortnight ! But for 

 the bad usage they got there is no reason why they should not have 

 lasted a month longer than they did. 



Few Orchid flowers, or flowers of anything else, keep better or longer 

 than the great waxy flowers of the glorious Lycaste Skinnerii, and 

 few are more easily grown. The plants are cheap : a dozen of nice 

 healthy ones of ordinary kinds may be had for i,'4 or £b, which will 

 be worth £50 or i*60 in the space of a dozen years, if well managed. 

 Then the ynire white kinds are to be had for from £b to £bO each, 

 and in good hands these will prove a really good investment; for, when 

 growing freely, they every now and again, at by no means unreason- 



