CHAPTER XV. 



COOL TREATMENT OF ORCHIDS. 



\ T TITHIN the last few years, an entire change in the 

 V V culture of Orchids has been advocated, and in 

 many instances carried into practice in England, and 

 with no inconsiderable degree of success. This new 

 mode of culture, known as the "cool treatment," is 

 directly opposed to the practice of the last thirty years, 

 and to all the theories of Orchid culture. The propo- 

 sition on which it is based is, that Orchid houses have 

 always been kept too hot, and the plants grown on a 

 "high pressure principle : " that the maintenance of such 

 a temperature is not only very expensive, but injurious to 

 the plants, and that any person having a heated grapery 

 where the temperature is never allowed to fall below 40 

 Fahrenheit may grow most of the Orchids now in cultiva- 

 tion in great perfection, and withal ripen his grapes quite 

 as well as when the house was exclusively devoted to 

 them. 



Now if this can be done, and it has in many cases been 

 successfully accomplished, the culture of Orchids becomes 

 easy, and much of the expense which has deterred so 

 many from attempting it is saved. The experience of 

 florists and horticulturists hitherto has shown that it is 

 impossible to grow grapes and flowers successfully in the 

 same house : in other words a grapery and greenhouse 

 cannot be combined. But if our forcing houses can be 



