SPOT IN ORCHIDS. 57 



In 1860, a gentleman bought of me some plants of 

 Phalmnopsis, which were the finest grown plants I had seen, 

 and they did beautifully with him for some time, growing very 

 fast — in fact too fast, for they got sappy, and their leaves 

 became spotted, as did also those of some others he had. 

 Some time after I went to see them, and he asked my opinion 

 respecting them. Upon inquiring how they had been treated, 

 he told me that he gave them a great deal of water over the 

 leaves, and kept the roots wet ; this was during winter. I 

 went several times to see them during the following spring, 

 and advised him to treat them as recommended for Pha- 

 lanopsis in these pages. These plants have quite outgrown 

 the spot, and are now among the finest round London. 



When at Hoddesdon, I had two Phalmiopses which became 

 afiected with spot in the winter. I cut ofi" one of the leaves, 

 and sent it to Dr. Lindley for his opinion as to the cause of 

 the evil. His reply was, that the plants had been kept too 

 moist during the cold dark days of winter — a fact which I 

 have never since lost sight of. He was quite right, for it was 

 a sharp winter, and these two plants had been kept wet by 

 placing the bottom of the block on which they grew in a pan 

 of water to keep ofi* the cockroaches. In that way, too much 

 moisture crept up to the roots, and, being in the winter time, 

 this doubtless caused the leaves to become spotted. However, 

 by following the treatment here recommended in my remarks 

 on Phalcsnopsis, the plant soon recovered ; but if a rigorous 

 change had not been adopted in time, the disease would have 

 gone too far, and probably killed the plants. 



Much injury is done to epiphytal Orchids by keeping the 

 plants too wet at the roots in dull weather ; in fact, too much 

 moisture in that way is injurious at any time, especially to 

 those species that grow on branches of trees, when they come 

 to be confined in pots and baskets with a mass of wet material 



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