ANCECTOCHILUS. 



121 



vation, which is not generally well understood, we will now 

 address ourselves. All the varieties are remarkable for their 

 dwarf compact habit, perfect form, and great beauty : they 

 vary in height from two to six inches, and their leaves, which 

 are well defined, vary from two to five inches in length, 

 including the stalks, which, like the stems, are short and 

 fleshy. The foliage of all the species is singularly rich and 

 beautiful. In some it resembles the richest olive or purple 

 velvet, regularly traversed with a network of golden lines. In 

 others the leaf is of the most lively green, covered with silver 

 tracery. 



As regards cultivation, the plants require saul and peat 

 mixed with moss. The white sandy ground from which they 

 spring should be enlivened occasionally by small growths of 

 moss, which sets off the plant to much advantage, especially 

 when looked at through a bell-glass, under which the delicacy, 

 richness, and softness of their appearance are increased. Few 

 visitors walk through a house containing any of these plants 

 without bestowing on them more than ordinary attention, and 

 expressing admiration of their beauty. 



The whole of the species require treatment very different 

 from that given to any other Orchids, and difi'erent growers 

 operate in different ways, but we have not found any mode of 

 management to succeed better than the one first laid down by 

 us many years ago, and which is being followed by many who 

 have Anaetochili growing in great perfection. They are 

 certainly difficult to cultivate, and many fail with them — a 

 circumstance we attribute to their being kept too close. The 

 glass case in which they are grown should always have a little 

 air, by tilting or opening the glass about one or two inches ; this 

 will benefit them very much, and make them more vigorous, 

 for when too much confined in the case or bell-glass, they 

 grow up spindly and damp off" in the stem ; the latter, being 



