orchids: now to giiow them successfully. 109 



purchased in mii ostablishod state, as it is found difficult to import 

 it in good condition, and two years are generally required to get 

 such plants established. 



Good strong plants can be purchased at from 5/- to 7/0 per 

 leading gi-owtli. 



SoBKALiA MACUANTiiA. From Guatemala, 

 This is a veiy handsome free gTO^\^ng species, and a healthy 

 plant, properly treated, soon grows into a large specimen, jjroducing 

 a number of flowers. It is best grown in a pot, which should be 

 drained with rough crocks to one-third of its depth, and over this 

 a thin layer of sphagnum, and good strong turfy loam, adding a 

 little coarse sand and broken charcoal, to ensure a porous compost 

 and drainage. It should be potted as recommended for Cymbidium 

 ebumeum, leaving the smface of the soil one inch below the level 

 of the pot to provide for a thorough watering, and, in potting, the 

 compost should be made moderately firm. This plant is always in 

 a growing state, therefore, has no resting season, and simply 

 requires a good watering when it becomes dry, as with an ordinary 

 greenhouse plant. It should be kept in the coolest part of the 

 house, well up to the light when it can receive a good supply of 

 air. The SobraHa flowers during May and June. Each stem, 

 which is rather tall gi'owing, bearing in succession from five to 

 eight beautiful large rosy piurple-tinted flowers, and the plant does 

 not need repotting until the pot becomes overcrowded with roots, 

 then it should be tm-ned out and all the old crocks removed, 

 together with as much of the soil as can conveniently be taken 

 away without distm-bing the roots, and then repotted into a larger 

 pot, and when the plant is re-established a little weak manure 

 water is beneficial. 



Established plants of this species should be purchased at 

 from 10/- to 21 - for two or three flowering stems. 



TiiuxiA Maestlvxliaxa. From the East Indies. 

 This is another handsome free gi'owing Orchid, beaiing a large 

 ti-uss of beautifid white and yellow flowers at the top of the new 

 pseudo bidbs in June or July. This species has a very short season 

 of gi-owth, and should be cidtivated in pots half filled ^Wth drain- 

 age and potted in a mixture of peat, loam, and silver sand, and the 

 compost left quite half an inch below the rim of the pot. The 



