218 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS FOR JULY. 
By H. A. BURBERRY, Orchid Specialist, King’s Heath, Birmingham. 
For the temperatures, atmospheric conditions, and general management 
of the various departments, reference should be made to the Calendar for 
May, which contains instructions in such matters for the summer months. 
The early part of the season was rather cold, but since the advent of 
June we have had a fair number of warm, sunny days, from which the 
plants have benefited considerably, fully making up for any lost time in the 
earlier stages of the season. We must continue to give them the full 
benefits of the summer weather, the East Indian and Intermediate kinds 
especially, so that they may grow freely while the conditions are favourable. 
Give them plenty of moisture, sun, air, and light; remove the shading as 
soon asiall danger of burning or scalding is past in the afternoon. At the 
same time treat them to a shower bath with tepid soft water—rain water 
if possible. The air shoud also then be reduced, but I rarely ever shut up 
close, always preferring to leave a little on, especially at the bottom 
ventilators, and, should the nights be cold, giving a slight amount of 
warmth in the pipes. I emphasize the word “ slight,” for it would be far 
better to have none at all than too much at this season of the year, for it 
_ would only tend to exhaust and dry up the moisture in the atmosphere so 
greatly needed and so much enjoyed by the plants after the heat of the day. 
The little I recommend is not so much for the temperature—that will, 
with few exceptions, be high enough without it, for at ieast the next two 
months, but for the atmosphere, inducing a steady circulation and possibly 
preventing various forms of fungoid growth, usually known as “ spot,”’ on 
the foliage. 
SPOTTING OF THE FLOwERS.—This is rather a nuisance during the 
summer months when but little fire heat, if any, is used, and the cause is 
distinctly stagnant moisture. It occurs through either having the house 
entirely closed at night or by having no warmth in the pipes. The principal 
cause, however, is too much air obstruction and moisture-holding materials 
about the interior of the house, such as air proof stages, with shingle, 
cinders, or something else on them, and masses of masonry built up under — 
the stages and in close contact with the pipes; in fact, I have sometimes 
seen the pipes half buried with one thing or another. The air is thus 
effectually prevented from freely circulating beneath the plants, and even 
should the pipes be slightly warmed, as suggested above, it is no cure, 
because it only adds to the amount of moisture in the air, which condenses 
at the coolest: part of the house, working much havoc with the blooms. I 
rarely lose a flower in this manner, although frequently being without fire 
heat, because I am careful to have open wood stages, and nothing whatever 
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