The Culture of Greenhouse Orchids 



Dendrobes and East Indian species proportionately 

 more, and cool orchids less, of course. 



But the majority of those whom I address are not 

 prepared to build for the purpose. They must do 

 with such houses, or such house, as they have. And 

 the result will satisfy them, probably. No class of 

 plants is so easy to grow as orchids none so 

 long-suffering. The public is wondrous slow to 

 learn this truth. It clings resolutely to traditions 

 which have long been out of date. Orchids were 

 costly when those who gathered and shipped them 

 understood nothing of their requirements, and so 

 probably the consignment was doomed at starting ; 

 when they travelled by sailing vessels, and lay be- 

 calmed for weeks in the neighbourhood of the 

 Equator; when no one knew exactly what to do 

 with them on arrival. If buyers were few, they 

 were enough to compete heavily for the small 

 remnant which sometimes survived the voyage. 

 And the culture was both troublesome and ex- 

 pensive, with glass at "famine price," hot-air flues 

 instead of water-piping, and general ignorance 

 about the treatment. Marvellous it seems now that 

 gardeners should have been skilful and careful 

 enough to make them thrive under such conditions, 

 at any cost. But all that is ancient history. I 

 have heard a humorous authority declare that any 



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