486 THE GARDENER. [Nov. 



certainly the most expensive heating season of the year, and, to our 

 mind, the season when low night temperatures are safest. As has 

 been frequently pointed out, a high night temperature, when we 

 have barely eight hours' daylight and sixteen hours of darkness, is 

 attended with the most unnatural and debilitating consequences to 

 plants. Of course there are extremes towards the other end of the 

 scale of heat on which it is not safe to experiment. But, from obser- 

 vation and personal experience, we are quite convinced that our tropical 

 plants, if properly treated in summer, will bear a lower winter night 

 temperature not only with impunity but with advantage. AVe could 

 instance numerous instances of great success attending this practice. 

 In our own experience the finest crop of Pine-Apples we ever produced 

 was from plants that stood through a very severe winter in a pit, in 

 which, for weeks in succession, we could not keep the thermometer 

 from falling to 45° at midnight and at daylight. We had considerable 

 anxiety about the consequences to a very fine lot of plants. But when 

 the starting time — about May — arrived the result was as we have 

 stated ; and except in the case of Pines intended for starting into fruit 

 in January, we would be quite satisfied with 50° during very severe 

 weather, and 55° as a maximum in mild winters. As compared with 

 higher temperatures, this effects a great saving in coals. We have 

 recently inspected a mixed collection of Orchids, including especially 

 Yandas in more than usual vigour and substance, which was wintered 

 last year at a temperature many degrees lower than the standard tem- 

 perature generally recommended in the case of such plants. And we 

 were particularly struck with the broad stout leaves and dark green 

 of the Yandas and other East Indian Orchids. It must, however, be 

 stated that to winter such plants at so low a temperature requires some 

 difference in their treatment during summer when they make most 

 growth. And having named Yandas, we have no hesitation in saying 

 that as a rule they are grown with far too much shade and too little 

 air in summer. The consequence of this is an attenuated, soft, drooping 

 foliage which would not be safe in a low night temperature in winter. 

 But given a Yanda with broad, short, thick leaves, standing at almost 

 a right angle with the stem, and we have no hesitation in saying that 

 it is perfectly safe at 55° at night all through a hard winter. The same 

 remarks apply to Pines and all tropical plants. To winter perfectly 

 they must not be steamed and stifled into mere weeds in summer. 



Another point of economy, and also one that may be regarded as 

 good culture, is to apply coverings to the surface of the glass when 

 the weather is cold. This is a great point of economy in firing, and 

 one that is attended with good results to the plants. There is no 

 reason why all comparatively low pits and houses should not be 



