December, 192!.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
185 
job if he started talking about how to cure. I have just lost a very fine 
spike of Odontoglossum crispum through thrip, although every plant in the 
house had been dipped in insecticide 14 days ago, and I thought the house 
was perfectly clean.— Chas. N. Kemp, Grove Park, Redland, Bristol. 
The Amateur’s Side of Cultivation. —I have often wondered why 
the amateur’s side of Orchid growing has never been handled by an 
amateur, because I often think that Mr. Black, Mr. Alexander, and Mr. 
Barker have never had to grow the plants under the conditions of say, 
myself—in a conservatory 30 feet high, with a lantern roof and a white 
tiled wall on the inside, facing due south, without shading of any description, 
and grown without the aid of osmunda or any other imported fibres. And, 
further, the collection is mostly comprised of plants that have been bought 
cheaply at various sales, often at death’s door, and requiring to be nursed 
back to health and vigour. Among the Cypripediums there is a plant of 
Leeanum Clinkaberryanum in a 6-inch pot, showing thirteen buds, and 
Cymbidium Tracyanum with two spikes of seventeen flowers each; last 
year it carried four of eighteen flowers each. These plants are never touched, 
except by my husband, myself, and the maid.— Josephine R. Walker, 
Garforth, Leeds. 
THE AMATEUR’S PAGE. 
B ASKETS AND PANS.—“ One frequently reads that certain plants are 
best cultivated in baskets and pans, but I am at a loss to know which 
of the two to select ? ” 
Baskets are generally used for plants that produce a pendulous raceme 
from their base. Stanhopeas are good examples. No hard crocks should 
be used, merely some rough fibre or bracken roots to cover the bottom rails, 
and above this the usual compost of fibre and moss. The flower spikes 
will then have nothing to hinder their progress. Phalasnopses are often 
grown successfully in baskets, for the roots find ample means of clinging to 
the w ooden rails, and thus obtaining the plentiful supply of air and moisture 
which appears so essential to their welfare. Earthenware pans prove most 
useful in accommodating the dwarf-growing kinds, such as Sophronitis 
grandiflora and Odontoglossum Rossii, also for those producing pendulous 
spikes after the habit of the well-known Odontoglossum citrosmum. These 
three plants do not push their spikes directly downwards through the 
compost, as is the case with Stanhopeas, but they produce spikes above the 
rim of the pan. In O. citrosmum the spike gradually arches over, and 
finally assumes a pendulous nature. 
Cattleya Bulbs Rotting —" Several of my Cattleyas are showing signs of 
rotting at the top of the bulb soon after the flowers are cut, and my belief 
is that too much water has been applied.” 
