6 COOL ORCHID GROWING. 



will grow well in a low, moist temperature, or even out of 

 doors, still it is essentially requisite that a proper selection be 

 made of those genera and species which are amenable to cool 

 treatment, or very disastrous results may follow its adoption. 

 No one would for a moment imagine that, the Phaleenopsids, 

 Aerides, Yandas, and Dendrobes from the low-lying humid 

 tropical regions could be successfully grown in the very cool 

 and moist temperature so highly recommended as suitable for 

 *bdontoglots and the cooler Oncids. Nor can the last-men- 

 tioned endure the dry resting period so essential to most of 

 the tropical Dendrobes. Some growers may argue that these 

 plants, i. e., Odontoglossums for example, do not come from a 

 cool temperature. We can well afford to allow them their own 

 preconceived ideas on the subject, while we maintain that in 

 this country they may be grown in a cool, moist atmosphere 

 as well, and even better than they have been grown in the high 

 temperature they recommend. I contend that it matters but 

 little what the natural temperature of their native habitats 

 may be ; if they succeed well with us here in a much cooler one 

 so much the better. It is a great mistake to use fire heat when 

 ^t is not required. In the first place it is unnatural even when 

 mollified as much as is practicable by moisture. Secondly, it 

 is a source of trouble, annoyance, and expense both to the gar- 

 dener and his employer, and I am well satisfied that a great 

 number of really beautiful Orchids will succeed perfectly well 

 without any fire-heat at all during summer, while during the 

 winter months its use may be reduced to a minimum, by 

 carefully using covering material far the houses, as mats 

 either of reeds, straw, or bark. I would not be understood as 

 ignoring altogether the valuable information afforded us by 

 collectors and travellers respecting the natural conditions in 

 which plants grow abroad, since that knowledge guides us in 

 our treatment to a certain extent, though it would not in all 



