CHAP Th Rh XVPii. 
CALANTHE. 
NUMEROUS very handsome kinds of this genus are in 
cultivation. Most of them are robust-growing, terrestrial 
plants, producing large, broad, many-ribbed or plaited 
leaves, which are evergreen or deciduous; the racemes are 
long, bearing many flowers, and these are distinguished by 
their spurred lip, which is attached to the column, and by 
the eight thick, waxy pollen-masses adhering to a separate 
gland. About forty species are known, chiefly natives of 
Asia, a few being American. 
Calanthes deserve to be special favourites with amateurs, 
because, in the first place, they produce an abundance of 
showy flowers, which last a long time in full beauty; and 
secondly, they are, as a rule, so easily managed that anyone 
possessing a warm greenhouse may grow them successfully, 
and may be sure of an abundance of bloom when the 
flowering season comes round. 
Culture.—These plants thrive in a mixture of turfy loam, 
leaf-mould, and sphagnum, to which may be added some 
silver sand and dried cow-manure. During the growing 
season they enjoy an abundant supply of water, and even 
in winter water must be freely administered to the ever- 
green kinds, the drainage being carefully attended to; 
G 
