102 



CASSELL'S POPULAE GAEDENING. 



our glass-houses, have an excess of heat. Fierce 

 sunshine striking on to plants after a long spell of 

 dull weather, or obscure light, both of which render 

 the tissues of plants soft and flaccid, bums up and 

 scorches such tissues. Had the light been more in- 

 tense, the heat would probably have done them no 

 harm,, so that actually the necessity for blinds arises 

 from the obscurity of our light. 



No doubt, too, shading is wonderfully overdone ; 

 it is invariably practised on the side of excess, and 

 for this reason. A sudden scorch becomes at once 

 visible, its evil and loss are all too prominently ap- 

 parent ; but the evils of over-shading are slowly re- 

 vealed, and it even needs special knowledge and 

 training to note them at sight, and whole months, 

 maybe, after the evil is done. It should be laid down 

 as an unalterable law, never to shade unless when 

 the Sim is shining, and to withdraw it the moment it 

 is overcast by clouds. To facilitate the carrying out 

 of this law, all shading material should be moved 

 on rollers, so geared that they can be moved up or 

 down with the utmost ease and despatch. If they 

 are otherwise, they are sure to be either let down too 

 early or too late, and, worse almost than either, left 

 on far too long. It is seldom needful to shade be- 

 fore H a.m., nor to leave it on after 3 p.m., though 

 conditions of plants, aspect of houses, &c., largely 

 determine such matters. But little harm wiU result 

 from any necessary shading, once it is thoroughly 

 understood that it is used solely as against excessive 

 heat, and never with the intention of moderating the 

 energy of solar light, which is mostly all too weak 

 ' for tropical plants under our semi-leaden skies. 



Size of Plant-stoves and Orchid-houses. 

 — This has been incidentally referred to as of little 

 or no moment. But as very exaggerated ideas pre- 

 vail to the contrary, it may be well to state that 

 some of the finest stove-plants and Orchids have 

 been grown in the smallest houses. For example, 

 one of the healthiest collections of Phalsenopsis to 

 he found in the country, has been grown for the last 

 ten years in a house about thirty feet long, ten 

 wide, and eight high. The form is a hip-span, and 

 it furnishes such a feast of Phalsenopsis to its owner 

 every year, that good and large growers make many a 

 pilgrimage to see it. It is also important to do away 

 with thenotion that plant-stoves and Orchid-houses 

 are beyoJid the reach of amateurs and those with 

 siriall means. On the contrary, few plants can be 

 grown with less cost than Orchids and many of the 

 choicer stove-plants. Even the cost of purchasing 

 them is daily becoming less ; the enormous imports, 

 innumerable auctions, the competition of trade firms, 

 and la^st, but by no means least, the liberality of 

 many of our largest growers, who treat amateurs in 



the most liberal and fraternal way in regard to cost 

 of collections, have brought Orchids within reach of 

 all classes; and almost any house that will grow 

 green-house plants well, will, with a little more 

 heating force, grow Orchids equally well or better. 

 And even the additional heat is not essential for some 

 of the most beautiful of all Orchids. Such as Odonto- 

 glots, MasdevaUias, Stanhopeas, Lycastes, and many 

 of the Cypripediums, forming magnificent collec- 

 tions in themselves, may be grown in warm conser- 

 vatories ; and small houses may be readily warmed 

 up to a temperature of from 65« to 75°, which will 

 suffice to grow the heat-loving Orchids. It is to be 

 hoped that neither the size of the house supposed to 

 be needful, nor the cost of keeping it warm, nor the 

 comprehensive lists that we have given of plants 

 which we have wished to popularise, will prevent 

 our readers fi-om trying Orchids. Stove-plants are 

 yet cheaper and more easily grown, and those 

 amateurs who have not yet tried a small stove can 

 have little idea of the amount of pleasure that may 

 be reaped from such a house at a small cost. 

 Orchid-houses may be found varj-ing as widely in 

 size as from ten feet wide to fifty, and from Six feet 

 high to fifteen or twenty feet, with lengths of every 

 possible number of feet to suit the pockets or plants 

 of -their owners. Lengths of fifty feet, breadths of 

 twenty feet, and heights of ten to twelve feet, are 

 also comparatively cominon. Some of the largest 

 houses are twenty feet broad and eleven feet high, 

 with side shelves thirty inches ^ide and a yard 

 high; then follows a path a yard wide all round, 

 leaving a stage eleven feet wide in the centre. But 

 the tendency of the present day is towards small 

 houses for cultural purposes, alike for the cultivation 

 of Orchids and of stove-plants. 



Porms of Plant -stoves ajid Orchid - 

 houses. — Any of those forms already Ulustrated 

 or described as suitable for conservatories will also 

 answer for plant-stoves and Orchid-houses. Curvi- 

 linear and regular, or irregular, that is, hip-spanned 

 roofed houses, are, however, specially adapted for 

 such purposes. These admit more light than lean- 

 to's, even should the latter have front and end lights. 

 Still, as we have already seen, mere glass roofs span- 

 ning any handy distance between two walls will 

 suffice, though they would be cried down by many 

 as far behind the times. But the times are suffi- 

 ciently catholic in knowledge and taste to welcome 

 all practicable good from the past, and all possible 

 improvements from the present and the future. 

 Besides, many who can afford a mere glass roof, 

 cannot afford expensive houses. 



No house can be too good for the growth and 

 display of stove-plants and Orchids ; none can be 



