ORCHIDS FOR GREENHOUSE CULTURE. 107 



It does well in peat soil ; there is no better place for it tlian in a 

 rhododendron bed; and it should have plenty of water in summer. 

 It is the finest of all our native Cypripediums. 



John Robinson had grown Oypripedium arietinum and C. spedahile 

 successfully, but C. acaule had not done well with him. 



President Parkman had found C. 2y(trviflo7Xi to do best. 



E. H. Hitchings asked the president what success he had had 

 with Calopogon pulchellus, of which Mr. Hitchings gave him some 

 bulbs. Mr. Parkman answered that they survived the first season 

 and then disappeared. 



Mr. Wilder inquired whether it was not better to grow some 

 species of orchids in pans than in crowded pots. 



Charles M. Hovey said that Mr. Wilder probably alluded to 

 Cypripedium insigne and C. veriustum. Pans are better for these, 

 because in deep pots they are apt to get too much water. The 

 pans should be well drained. He saw this plan first in the garden 

 of Mr. Lenoir, in New Jersey ; he had pans fifteen or twenty inches 

 in diameter, containing plants with one or two hundred fiowers 

 each. Orchids must have special treatment, and hence they have 

 not come into general cultivation. In England he found the orchid 

 houses so reeking with moisture and heat that ladies could not 

 possibly enter them. Cool orchids from Mexico v/ill grow in 

 greenhouses which are accessible to ladies. 



Mr. Cartwright said that the treatment of cool orchids is very 

 simple : give plent}^ of water and heat in the growing season. 

 Keep Dendrohium nohile in a cool place, and you will always 

 retain the foliage. Through the dormant season he keeps them 

 on a bed of slightly moist sand. 



Mr. Hovey said that in England they had had a great deal of 

 discussion of cool orchids, so that they were getting tired of it. 

 Orchids had been recommended for cool culture which were unfitted, 

 and consequently many had been destro3'ed. We have a great 

 advantage over English cultivators in our bright sun, which enables 

 us to grow many species in the greenhouse which cannot be so 

 cultivated there. Our bright sun ripens up and matures the pseudo- 

 bulbs, which all the fire heat is unable to accomplish. 



Mr. Cartwright agreed with Mr. Hovey as to the advantage of 

 sunlight for orchids, and said that he would always expose them 

 to the sun. 



Mr. Rand, in reply to an inquiry by the president, whether the 



