CHAPTER VI. 



THE ORCHID HOUSE. 



THE construction of the house is a most important 

 part of Orchid culture. The first conditions to be 

 secured for the health and growth of the plants are a 

 moist and warm atmosphere, and the house must be built 

 with a special view to this end. 



We often see collections of Orchids in greenhouses, 

 where all the requisites for their growth are wanting, 

 crowded with greenhouse plants, drenched at one time 

 with water and then again allowed to dry up, subjected to 

 cold draughts of air and exposed to a burning sun. Is 

 it a wonder they never thrive? that year by year they 

 dwindle and die till at last only a few of the hardiest spe- 

 cies such as Ontidiums, Stanhopeas, and Peristerias survive, 

 and these weak and sickly ; and if they bloom at all they 

 throw up such weak spikes of bloom that the owner in 

 despair throws away the whole collection. The failure is 

 not surprising ; Orchids cannot be grown successfully 

 with other plants, though in an Orchid house many of 

 the beautiful variegated leaved plants, which like Orchids 

 require a moist heat, may be grown with perfect success, 

 and a collection of hot-house ferns adds to the Orchid 

 house the foliage Orchids often want. 



Orchids must then have a house to themselves. This 

 need not, however, be a separate building ; a portion of 

 the greenhouse divided off by a glass partition in which 



