52 ORCHIDS. 



the requisite heat can be obtained, will answer perfectly 

 well for most Orchids, and the plants may be rested in 

 the greenhouse. 



To grow Orchids with perfect success and where there 

 is a large collection, we need three separate houses or 

 apartments, the Stove or East Indian House, the Inter- 

 mediate or Mexican House, and the Resting House. 



The best aspect for an Orchid house is north and 

 south, that is, if span-roofed, the house should run east 

 and west ; if the house is " lean-to " let it face the south- 

 east. 



There has been much difference of opinion in regard 

 to the adaptation of lean-to houses to Orchids. In Eng- 

 land and the continent all the most successful growers 

 use span-roofed houses, and we have no hesitation in 

 pronouncing them better adapted to the growth of the 

 plants. The one argument in favor of lean-to houses 

 which is of any weight is, that they are more easily kept 

 at the necessary temperature, which in our cold winters 

 it is difficult to preserve. If however, we make our 

 houses low, and an Orchid house should be only about 

 thirteen feet high, a span-roofed house is easily heated. 



A small house may be from thirty to fifty feet in length 

 by twelve feet wide (or if span-roofed double this width). 

 It should be built like a pit, the floor of the house being 

 about three feet below the level of the ground. The walls 

 should be brick or stone as high as the ground surface ; 

 on this a heavy frame should be laid, and then sashes 

 with heavy uprights reach to the frame supporting the 

 roof; the whole height from the ground inside to the 

 slope of the roof should be about six feet. The whole of 

 the front wall is often built of brick, which possesses 



