72 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



away. To avoid this, some resort to the practice of dipping 

 the plants on which the seeds are sown, allowing the water 

 to reach only to within an inch of the surface of the com- 

 post. This is better than watering overhead. Spraying 

 with rain-water is an excellent means of securing uniform 

 moisture, although it requires more care and attention than 

 dipping. The sprayer is a great help in all stages of seed- 

 ling Orchid growth, not only as a means of conveying 

 moisture direct, but by spraying around the plants and on 

 the staging it is a great aid to maintaining a moist atmos- 

 phere. Let the moisture be conveyed in whatever manner 

 it may, it must not be forgotten that the seeds will perish 

 soon after germination if allowed to get quite dry, either 

 from failure of moisture in the material on which they are 

 sown, or from an excessively dry air surrounding them. 

 Against the above-mentioned practice of sowing the seeds on 

 established plants, it is urged that in that way there is no 

 certain means of keeping the different crosses from being 

 mixed, by reason of the seeds of one kind getting into the 

 water-tank and being thus conveyed and mixed with others ; 

 and by seeds falling from plants suspended overhead and 

 coming up on plants beneath, and in other unexpected 

 places. Such acquisitions, though often very acceptable, are 

 puzzling, as there is no record of their origin, or if they 

 come up amongst seeds which have a record, the chance 

 introductions sometimes have a wrong parentage assigned 

 to them. 



To lessen such risks, it is the custom of some growers 

 to arrange a seed-raising case, constructed like an ordinary 

 propagating case, in form like a miniature lean-to, or span- 

 roofed Orchid house. This is arranged over a part of the 



