20 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



and make any alterations necessary. The heating apparatus 

 should be regulated, and, above all, the best possible pro- 

 vision must be made for catching and storing rain-water, 

 even if this necessitates the providing of a brick and cement 

 tank beneath the staging. 



If the existing floor in the house is of concrete or tiles, 

 or any similar material, it must be removed, leaving the 

 natural earth for the surface of the basement, and providing 

 a wood-trellis for walking on in spaces between the stages. 

 Let the house be thoroughly cleansed and painted, and after a 

 short time has elapsed it will be ready to receive the plants. 



In such a house heated as a cool, intermediate house, 

 with a minimum temperature of 50 to 60 Fahr. in winter, 

 a large number of showy Orchids can be grown successfully. 

 Those species which require great heat should be care- 

 fully avoided, for, although cool-house Orchids are easily 

 managed in a house warmer than is necessary for them, 

 the hot-house kinds usually fail in a temperature which 

 is too low to allow of their making growth under favourable 

 conditions. In such an intermediate house the Odonto- 

 glossums, Masdevallias and other favourite cool-house 

 Orchids can be grown successfully, if arranged in the 

 cooler part of the house and carefully watered. The Cattle- 

 yas, Laelias, and the garden hybrids should be placed on 

 the staging in the middle of the house, well up to the 

 light ; the Brazilian Oncidiums, Sophronitis grandiflora, 

 and Stanhopeas should be suspended from the roof of the 

 house, but in such positions as will avoid placing them 

 over the plants on the side staging. The Odontoglossums 

 arid Cochliodas may be accommodated on the side staging in 

 the cooler and moister part of the house. In such a house 



