BhlllSH AND: OTHER HARDY ORCHIDS. 517 
it should be filled with a mixture of sweet black peat 
(such as is used for Heaths), leaf-mould, and coarse sand: 
this will accommodate those plants to which loam and 
lime are distasteful. Another portion should be filled with 
a mixture of peat, loam, and leaf-mould in equal parts, and 
the remainder with good light turfy loam, mixed with old 
mortar from buildings, or with chalk. 
When planting, the tubers and roots should be buried 
about 2in. below the surface. The roots should be handled 
gently and spread out, slightly pressing the soil about 
them. In dry weather the border must be kept well 
watered; the water for those species which are not in 
loam should be soft or rain water. A mulching of moss 
or cocoa-nut fibre should be placed on the bed in hot 
weather. These conditions may be slightly modified if 
the plants are to be grown amongst stones in the 
rockery. 
_ Should the weather in winter be very wet and the 
temperature changeable, a covering of boards or lights, or 
even dead leaves, will protect the plants from harm. It 
is not the cold but the alternations of mild with cold 
weather, fogs, and rain, which destroy these plants when 
left unprotected in an English garden. 
Frame Culture-—The frame is used by some in pre- 
ference to the open border, as it is much easier to 
regulate the moisture and temperature by means of 
movable lights. Except in winter the plants are left 
exposed to the air and weather. For such as tne Ophrys, 
which require a good ripening in the autumn by means 
of drought and sunlight, the lights are a great advantage. 
In other respects the treatment of plants in frames should 
be similar to that recommended for those in open beds. 
Pot Culture.—Where it is desirable to remove the 
lants, when in flower, to a conservatory or indoors, the 
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