orchids: how to grow them successfully. 101 



C(ELOGYNE Massangeana. Froiii tlio East Indies. 



This is a froo throwing Orchid and very floriferous when 

 th(^ plants are strong, producing its spikes freely. It should 

 be grown in peat and sphagnum, and is best suited for a basket 

 plant, as the flowers are borne on long pendulous spikes from 

 12 to 24 inches long, sometimes bearing as many as twenty-four 

 flowers on one spike, and when these are drooping over the side of 

 the basket the plant has a very pleasing apx^earance, although 

 void of any bnlliancy of colour— Kght yellow and browTi jjre- 

 dominating. This Orchid should have liberal supplies of water 

 when actively growing, and when inactive it should be kept 

 moderately dry, but never dry enough to cause the pseudo bulbs 

 to shrivel. 



Good plants should be purchased at from o - to 7 6 per strong 

 leading growth. EstabHshed. 



Cymbidium eburxeum. From the East Indies. 



Another free growing Orchid, and, Hke the last named, it soon 

 grows into a large specimen when the surrounding conditions are 

 favourable, and when they become large plants they flower much 

 more freely than when small. It is best grown in pots, in stiff 

 fibrous loam and peat in equal proportions, intermixed with sharp 

 silver or river sand and a little finely broken charcoal to keep 

 the soil sweet and porous. The pots should be a third full 

 of drainage, and not too small, for if the large fleshy roots of this 

 species are too cramped it is impossible to work the soil down 

 between them, and they must be made moderately firm, other- 

 wise the roots will be crowded into the pots in a mass with no 

 soil worked in between them, but only about them, in which case 

 they invariably rot. The surface of the soil should not be above 

 or even level with the rim of the pot, as is recommended for 

 epiphytal Orchids, or the water runs off instead of into the 

 plant. There should at least be half an inch of space below 

 the rim to receive water. The flowers are borne singly or in 

 l)airs, and are a beautiful pure white, with a slight streak of 

 yellow on the lip, and are verj' sweet scented. It should be 

 watered only when dry, like an ordinary plant, and will succeed 

 best in a cool, shady part of the house, where, if due attention 

 is given to the watering and potting, it soon grows into a 



