ANGCTOCHILUS. 51 
of its colours the whole of that time. All the species are 
natives of tropical Asia, the most beautiful being found in 
Ceylon and Java. 
Culture.—Although these plants have been in cultivation 
many years, and notwithstanding the painstaking care that 
has been expended upon them by both amateur and 
professional gardeners, their successful management in this 
country has never been quite accomplished. For a time— 
it may be two, or even five, years—they will grow and 
remain in health, and then suddenly they go wrong, the 
plants perishing one after the other in spite of all one 
can do. Of course, the same difficulty occurs in the case 
of other kinds of Orchids besides the Ancectochili, but the 
loss does not give nearly so much pain in the former case 
as in the latter, for one gets to love Ancectochili. Perhaps 
the most successful grower of these plants is a gentleman 
who now possesses a very fine collection of the best and 
rarest kinds, and whose only accommodation for them is 
a set of cases in the windows of his dwelling-house. This 
enthusiastic amateur has, however, been studying the 
habits and requirements of Ancectochili for over thirty 
years, and he declares to-day that they are still a mystery 
to him. But his ingenious and expensive contrivances 
are almost beyond imitation; we will therefore give the 
details of the treatment found most successful in the 
cultivation of a good collection of Ancectochili in the 
Royal Gardens, Kew. 
The plants are kept in a large case in a stove, where 
they are shaded from all direct sunshine. The temperature 
during summer rarely falls below 7cdeg., or exceeds 
8odeg.; in winter it is about 7odeg. by day and 6odeg. by 
night. The atmosphere is always very moist. The plants 
stand on a layer of clean cinders, which are always 
saturated. The pots used are small ones, as the plants 
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