40 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
THE AMATEUR’8 ORCHID HOUSE. 
BY WILLIAM GEDNEY, 
Head Gardener to J. C. Day, Esq., Tottenham, N, 
ammems TE} amateur who is desirous of keeping his garden 
AA =6expenditure as low as possible without curtailing the 
enjoyment to be derived from it, should cultivate those 
orchids only which may be successfully grown in a cool 
or intermediate house, and of these there is a sufficiency 
to have a fair display of flowers throughout the year, provided the 
kinds grown have been carefully selected. 
The species introduced from the East Indian jungles and the 
South Sea Islands, such as the Vandas, the Phalenopsis, and the 
Saccolabiums, are of the most exquisite beauty, but as a high tem- 
perature must be maintained throughout the year, the expense of 
fuel is heavy, and when the collection is of moderate extent only, 
the comparative cost is excessive. Moreover, the amateur can find 
a sufficient number of species to tax his cultural skill, and yield him 
a rich harvest of pleasure amongst the Odontoglots, the Oncids, the 
Masdevallias, and other important genera. Believing it to be to the 
interest of the amateur to limit his collection of orchids to the cool 
and temperate kinds, I shall on this occasion confine my remarks 
exclusively to them. 
Hovsr.—In speaking of the most suitable house for orchids, I 
would say distinctly that orchids are not so particular as to their 
quarters, as some writers would have us suppose. Double glazing, 
slate stages, open tanks, are, to a certain extent, very well in their 
way, but they are not really necessary, as the finest specimens may 
be produced in structures with fittings as plain and inexpensive as 
those of the most humble greenhouse. They may be built with a 
span-roof, in an open situation, or with a lean-to roof against a 
south, west, or east wall. A span-roof house is perhaps the most 
convenient, and in gardens where there is no available wall space for 
erecting a jean-to against, the span-roof form is the most economical 
to build. A very useful house for the amateur, is one about twelve 
feet in width outside measurement, five feet high at the sides, and ten 
feet high at the apex. The measurements should be the same for 
span roofs and lean-to’s, and the path, which ought to be three feet 
in width, should be down the middle, and a house forty feet long, and 
of the width and height mentioned, and divided in the middle with 
a glass partition, will afford accommodation for a nice collection of 
cool and temperate kinds. 
Flat stages on each side of the pathway will be the most useful, 
as the plants at the back can, if needful, be placed on inverted flower- 
pots, to bring them nearer the glass, and also to enable them to be 
seen more readily by visitors and those who have the charge of 
them. The stages can be made of open lattice work, or of boards 
put close together; and if the extra expense is a matter of small 
consequence, slabs of stone or slate may be employed instead of 
