138 ABOUT ORCHIDS. 
HOT “ORCHIDS. 
IN former chapters I have done my best to show 
that orchid culture is no mystery. The laws 
which govern it are strict and simple, easy to 
define in books, easily understood, and subject to 
few exceptions. It is not with Odcntoglossums 
and Dendrobes as with roses—an intelligent man 
or woman needs no long apprenticeship to master 
their treatment. Stove orchids are not so readily 
dealt with; but then, persons who own a stove 
usually keep a gardener. Coming from the hot 
lowlands of either hemisphere, they show much 
greater variety than those of the temperate and 
sub-tropic zones ; there are more genera, though 
not so many species, and more exceptions to every 
rule. These, therefore, are not to be recommended 
to all householders. Not everyone indeed is 
anxious to grow plants which need a minimum 
night heat of 60° in winter, 70° in summer, and 
cannot dispense with fire the whole year round. 
The hottest of all orchids probably is Perzsterza 
