ORCHIDS : HOW TO GROW THEM SUCCESSFULLY. 149 



the blinds remain down, and ventilate or not, just in accordance to 

 the warmth of the weather. 



A little care and thought is necessary when ventilating. It is 

 safer for th'e amateur to use the bottom ventilators only to admit 

 fresh air, employing the top ones only in warm weather when the 

 atmosphere seems overheated and oppressive. By a too liberal 

 application of top air the atmosphere, which should be kept pretty 

 evenly charged with moisture, is apt to get very dry, hence a little care 

 is required. Orchids when growing are extremely fond of moisture, not 

 so much at the roots as atmospherically. They derive their food and 

 nourishment from the air and the moisture it contains rather than from 

 the saturation of the compost in which they are growing. They are 

 often injured by keeping them too soddened at the root. It is 

 not natural for them to have their roots confined to a mass of con- 

 tinually wet compost. It is much safer to under rather than to over 

 water orchids at their roots, even at the height of their growing 

 season. Especially is it so with plants in large pots. The compost must, 

 however, be kept moist when growing by watering it occasionally. 



As a method answering the double purpose of watering the roots 

 almost sufficiently, as well as being all that is needful for damping 

 down purposes, I will here recommend a system of judicious syringing 

 overhead, and this is what this class of orchid delights in above any- 

 thing else. I have a little lean-to house with a due south aspect where 

 I continue this practice of syringing in lieu of damping and 

 watering throughout the winter months with great success, doing it, 

 not every day, but as often as seems necessary. But for general safety 

 I must not here advise winter overhead damping or syringing, because 

 in some kinds of structures its advantages might be overweighed by its 

 disadvantages. We will start say about the middle of March. Once 

 a day should be sufficient, doing it about nine or ten o'clock in the 

 morning. If the outside conditions should be dull and cold it should 

 then be left undone. This can go onto the month of May when it may 

 with safety be done every morning between 7 and 8 o'clock, and a second 

 time about 3 to 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when the air is reduced and 

 the shading removed ; do not however syringe the second time if the 

 outside conditions are not genial. When we get well into June the 

 second syringing can pretty safely be afforded every day, doing it as 

 soon as the shading can be removed with safety, at the same time reducing 

 the air so as to store up a good amount of sun heat to last the night. 

 The bottom ventilators should not be closed unless the weather is very cold 

 and ungenial. On the arrival of the latter end of September the morning 

 syringing only is again sufficient, and by the end of October perhaps 

 it had best cease altogether, falling back then to the daily damping of 

 the stages, paths, &c., and watering those that are dry and need water 

 with the Watering can. Let the water used for syringing purposes be at 



