12 THE OECHID-GROWER'S MANUAL. 



only way to get good strong ripe pseudo-bulbs fit for flower- 

 ing. Small houses are best : in different parts of the country 

 there exist large houses, but in no instance have I seen 

 plants growing well in them ; such houses take great heat 

 to keep them at the proper night temperature, and after 

 all, they seem ill adapted to the wants of the plants. I 

 would advise all large Orchid houses to be pulled down or 

 turned to other purposes, and their places occupied by small 

 ones ; the expense of the operation would soon be saved in 

 the reduction that would take place in the cost of pipe and 

 fuel. 



The house at this place is of the size recommended above, 

 and no Orchid house could answer better. It has been built 

 about seven years, and is well worth inspection. It affords 

 plenty of room for the plants to show themselves to advantage, 

 and it has likewise roomy paths, which is a great recommen- 

 dation ; for nothing is more unpleasant than not being able 

 to inspect the plants with comfort. The inside dimensions 

 of my house are as follows : it is sixty feet long, eleven feet 

 high in the centre, with a glass division, making as it were 

 two houses. The width is eighteen feet ; there is a table 

 six feet wide up the centre, and a path all round three feet 

 wide j there are side-tables three feet wide, covered with 

 slate. The floor is concreted, three inches thick, and then 

 covered with Portland cement, which forms a capital surface. 

 The whole is heated with hot water, in three rows of four- 

 inch pipes on each side, having valves to stop or turn-on the 

 water as required. The boiler is an improved saddle, which 

 answers well, and when properly set, as mine is, not easily 

 beaten. This same boiler works two other large houses, one 

 of which is fifty feet, and the other seventy feet long, and all 

 are kept at stove heat. On both sides of this house are 

 upright sashes, as recommended above. It is glazed in the 

 same way as is recorded in my remarks on glazing (see next 

 page), and it has four ventilators on each side close to the 



