MOTH ORCHIDS = 529 
flowers 3 inches across; the sepals and petals wavy, yellow and brown; 
the lip large, heart-shaped, bright yellow; winter. Intermediate house. 
Mexico, where it is known as the “ Flower of the Dead” (Flor de Muertos). 
We have already referred to the very great vertical 
range of Oncidiums in their natural habitat, and it will 
have beer inferred by the reader that a corresponding difference in the 
treatment of species must be adopted in cultivation. Against some of 
the species described above we have written “stove”; these must be grown 
in a hot, moist atmosphere, with a summer-day temperature between 75° 
and 90°. These conditions, however, must only be maintained during 
the growing period. In winter such plants require less moisture, and the 
temperature should be much lowered—may indeed fall on a winter day to 
arge specimens should be grown in pots or baskets in a mixture 
of fibrous peat, sphagnum, and charcoal; smaller ones may be fastened 
to blocks. Those marked “Intermediate house” require the same treat- 
ment as that prescribed for Cattleyas, whilst those marked “Cool house” 
may be grown successfully in a greenhouse along with Odontoglossums. 
Most of this section succeed best as pot-plants, using the compost of 
peat-fibre and sphagnum with a little charcoal, and not allowing them 
to get dry at the roots even in winter. Propagation is effected by division. 
Description of Oncidium Forbesii. Plant greatly reduced; flowers 
Plate 242. natural size. Fig. 1 is a front view of the column; 2, side 
view of the same; 3, the pollen-masses. 
Cultivation. 
MOTH ORCHIDS 
Natural Order ORCHIDEH. Genus Phalenopsis 
PHAL&NOpSIS (Greek, phalaina, a moth, and opsis, resemblance). A 
genus of about twenty-one species of stove epiphytes, with very short 
stems, and fleshy leaves in place of the pseudo-bulbs of foregoing genera. 
The flowers are usually showy, with flat, spreading sepals and petals, 
borne in a loose raceme or panicle. In one section of the genus the petals 
are much broader than the sepals, whilst in the other section the petals 
are only of equal width with the sepals, or even narrower. The lip is 
three-lobed, and in some species the middle lobe is more or less distinetly 
divided into two horns or slender lobes, which help materially to give ne 
moth-like appearance upon which the names of the genus are founded ; 
is spurless, and is connected by a short neck-with the base of the woe 
cylindrical column. There is a one-celled anther containing two pollen- 
IV.—9 
