PHAL^NOPSIS. 21 



keep the surface sphagnum alive and moist. When water is applied 

 direct, it should be poured on the sphagnum only, never on the foliage 

 of the plants. 



Veiitilatioa and Shaduvj. — No very precise directions can be giveii for 

 ventilating the Phaltenopsis-house. Air should be admitted during the 

 growing season, whenever the external temperature is sufficiently high to 

 allow of its being done without risk ; this is best effected by means of the 

 lower ventilators, which should always be placed close to the hot-water 

 pipes, that the air may be warmed by them during its ingress. The 

 necessity for providing as much ventilation as is practicable, where so high 

 a temperature has to be constantly maintained, is one of the most serious 

 cares of the cultivator. The shading of the house, too, requires unceasing 

 vigilance, especially during the growing season, when the sensibility of 

 the leaves to direct sunlight is most apparent, for if exposed to it but 

 for a short time when the sun is powerful, they soon lose their rich 

 glossy colouring, and get a scorched, unhealthy appearance from which 

 they seldom recover.* Generally speaking, shading must be regulated 

 according to the season and the brightness of the weather. During the 

 winter months little or no shading is necessary. 



Potting, etc. — Phalsenopsis may be grown in pots, baskets, or cylinders 

 made of teak-wood rods, or even on blocks of wood and rafts, liaskets 

 and cylinders made of stoutish rods are preferred by many cultivators 

 for the species of Euphal^nopsis, as their roots can thence cling to 

 the rods in the same way as they cling to the bark of trees in their 

 native home ; but they are not free from objections, the greatest of 

 which is that as soon as the wood begins to decay the roots of the 

 plants will not cling to it. For species of the section Stauroglottis, 

 which are mostly of smaller size, the pot, basket, or cylinder should 

 be filled to three-fourths of its depth with clean, broken crocks for 

 drainage, and on the top of these many cultivators place horizontally 

 some straight pieces of charcoal ; but we have long discontinued the 

 use of this substance from our inability to detect the slightest 

 advantage derived from it. The remaining space should be tilled with 

 living sphagnum, and the plant placed in the centre, raised above the 

 level of the rim by means of the sphagnum, and some smaller broken 

 crocks mixed with it to promote drainage. It is usual to suspend 

 the basket from the roof. 



Should the atmosphere of the Phalsenopsis-house be allowed to get 

 dry, thrips will multiply with great rapidity, and soon disligure the 



• " The robust growth of Fhalaniopsis aniahiUn (P. (jrandiflora, Liudl.) astonislies all who 

 see the plant giownig in its native habitat ior the hist time, and how tightly the plants 

 aio lashed upon the trunk or branch on which they grow. Here, high up in uiid-air and 

 under a lierce huu, all the leaves are occasionally scoiched oil, or diied oil by sun and 

 wind during an excejitionally dry monsoon ; but the plant's energ) suU lives in its loots, 

 which, securely la--hed to ibe bark ot trees, remain liini and stiong, and no sijoner does 

 the wet season arrive than leaves and llowers are produced as if by magic."— F. W. B. iu 

 The Garden, XXIV. (188:3), d. 56u. 



