n8 THE UNHEATED GREENHOUSE 



increasing year by year under good treatment, it is one of the 

 best upon which to try one's 'prentice hand. As an example of 

 quite another type, Calypso borealis, a small but very choice 

 bog species, may be quoted. It is scarcely 4 in. high, yet 

 the plants in the Alpine House at Kew attract many a 

 visitor who knows their rarity, and can admire beauty in 

 miniature. Unlike O. foliosa, and the Ophrys or insect-like 

 section, which are mostly found in dry, open spots, this little 

 North American gem delights in shade and bog-soil, like our 

 own marsh Orchises, and will do well in a spongy compost of 

 sandy peat and loam, to which some chopped sphagnum moss 

 would be a good addition. The same treatment will suit 

 Goodyera pubescens, with silver-veined leaves. 



On the whole, the hardy bog-Orchids seem to be more 

 easily managed than those of the insectiferous section. Most 

 of them can be successfully grown in pots or pans in the 

 compost already recommended and surfaced with living 

 sphagnum, which keeps the soil moist and cool and is as 

 near an approach as can be made to that of their native 

 haunts. 



Hardy Lady-slippers (Cypripediums), for example, would 

 form a grand addition to the cold Orchid-house. C. spectabile, 

 the pink and white Mocassin Flower of North American swamps, 

 is one of the most vigorous and best known of these, and 

 finds a place in all good English gardens provided with 

 suitable positions for bog plants. Once upon a time, when 

 crossing a long stretch of swamp in Canadian backwoods 

 settlements, in a rough country waggon, bumping along as 

 the creaking wheels rolled over the unsteady logs of a 

 corduroy-road, I remember seeing this lovely Cypripedium, 

 for the first time, growing in massive clumps with other 

 ravishing bog plants, and being sternly forbidden to attempt 

 to gather one of them at peril of sinking shoulder-deep in the 

 ooze, if not risking life itself. It was a hard trial at the 



