WATERING ORCHID?. 45 



roof, and "as we have the New River water laid on as well, 

 when rain water is scarce we fiU up with this, and thereby 

 have a mixture of rain and hard water. 



" There can be no doubt that Orchids, like other plants, are 

 particukr as to the fluids given to them to nourish their roots. 

 We often hear growers say that the water obtainable in the 

 particular locality where they may reside is hard, and that 

 their plants do not thrive as they should do. We can full}' 

 sympathise with these men, as we know that hard water is 

 bad for Orchids as well as for other plants. Hard-wooded 

 plants, especially, will not thrive if the water they receive does 

 not suit them ; but it must be borne in mind that these plants 

 have fine hair-like roots, and are much sooner killed than 

 Orchids, which have thick fleshy roots. When conversing some 

 time ago with an Orchid grower from the North of England, 

 who told us that his plants were not doing well, that he 

 could not keep the sphagnum moss alive, which he attributed 

 to the use of hard water, and that he consequently put up a 

 cistern for rain water, and employed that, we were not sur- 

 prised to hear that the result had been to improve the health 

 of the plants, and that the moss was now growing luxuriantly. 



" There is a great difi'erence between difierent hard waters ; 

 some contain a quantity of iron, while others contain lime ; 

 these latter when used for sj-ringing leave white marks upon the 

 foliage. We believe water containing chalk and lime to be 

 beneficial to some kind of Orchids, especially Cyinipediums, 

 in fact, some growers use chalk or broken limestone mixed 

 with charcoal and peat to grow them in, and they succeed very 

 well in it. We have frequently seen distinct traces of lime 

 on imported Cypriijedkims. An importation of Cypripediwn 

 Spicerianum, received some time ago, was literally covered 

 with lime deposit, owing to the plants having been found 

 growing in the fissures of limestone rocks, where the water 



