60 ORCHIDS I HOW TO GROW THEM SUCCESSFULLY. 



with milk, can be used, or summer cloud will answer the same purpose ; 

 but roller blinds are much to be preferred, as they can be rolled up in 

 dull weather. Side ventilation (not bottom) is unnecessary, and what 

 is known as "drip" must be prevented, drip being caused by water from 

 the moist atmosphere condensing on the roof and running down the sash 

 bars on to the plants, saturating them and causing loss of the young 

 growths and pseudobulbs. This is most to be feared in the Warm 

 house, where the roof is flatter and a larger amount of moisture is 

 required for the plants, or in cases when the house has not been 

 properly constructed for Orchid culture. Horticultural builders have of 

 late paid much greater attention to this subject, the sash bars being so 

 constructed that all condensed moisture on the roof is collected and 

 carried away by means of a channel or furrow, formed on either side 

 of the sash bars. If the drip is found to be very troublesome, in 

 the absence of these furrowed sash bars, it can be dealt with, to a 

 great extent, by fastening small strips of zinc in the form of a gutter 

 to carry away the water. 



EVAPORATING TROUGHS, on the pipes, are aids to the assimilation 

 of moisture with the atmosphere, and for helping to keep down such 

 insect pests as thrip and aphis. By keeping the troughs regularly 

 supplied with water, and placing in them any waste tobacco or other 

 substance containing nicotine, the fumes arising therefrom will have a 

 beneficial effect upon the plants. 



MANURE AID TO ORCHIDS. 



This is somewhat dangerous ground to tread upon, but a few 

 words on the subject must be written. The structure of an Orchid and 

 method of deriving nourishment being so different to that of most 

 exotic plants, it behoves the cultivator, before applying manure as he 

 does to other plants, to consider what is the proper manure to use, and 

 how and when to apply it. Orchid growers have no doubt used 

 manures, some are still doing so, but as a rule their experiments are 

 made entirely in the dark, sometimes with good results, and at other 

 times the plants give no evidence of any improvement but are 

 frequently the worse for its application. My own experience, gained 

 b*y practice in cultivation, is, that as a rule, harm would be done by 

 applying artificial manures to the roots of the plants, as advised by 

 some growers, unless under exceptional conditions. Growth can be 

 assisted by applying manurial aid atmospherically, and all the help 

 that epiphytal Orchids require at our hands is, that the compost 

 should be kept sweet and sound, and not allowed to get into a sour 

 and decomposing state, using clean soft water and administering pure 

 air on every favourable occasion, for they derive so much of their 

 nourishment from the atmosphere by means of their roots and the 

 under surface of the foliage. 



