4 oechid-geower's manual. 



the circumstances considerably, and make our dry season also the coolest, 

 which is the reverse of what the plants experience naturally ; this, indeed, 

 seems to be the most judicious plan we can adopt, for it would simply 

 be madness to endeavour to force our Orchids to make their growth 

 during the winter months, and rest them during the summer. The best 

 season of rest for the majority of Orchids is from about the beginning of 

 November until the end of February. This long period of drought pre- 

 disposes the plants to blossom, and also prevents them from making weak 

 and sickly growths, which would undoubtedly be the case in the short 

 dark sunless days of our winter. 



In this place, of course, rules respecting the growth and rest of 

 Orchids can only be stated in general terms, the treatment in detail being 

 given with the description of each particular genus. Then, again, there 

 are certain species which are never entirely inactive throughout the 

 whole year, amongst which may be named some of the Odontoglossums, 

 Masdevallias, and many others whose home is in the Andes of South 

 America and other high mountainous districts. 



It is often thought that as Orchidaceous plants are so extremely 

 tenacious of life, the fact of their dying can only be the result of care- 

 lessness in their management ; but it should be borne in mind that we 

 have under the same roof plants from many different countries, whose 

 natural habitats must vary immensely in most respects. Now, if a little 

 thought is only bestowed upon this fact, it should rather be a matter of 

 surprise how so many plants are successfully managed, than how so 

 many are lost. 



Orchid cultivators, and indeed all lovers of Orchids, lost a good and 

 valuable friend and instructor in the late Dr. Lindley ; and in this parti- 

 cular branch of botany no one amongst us has been found competent to 

 fill the void. The late Professor Eeichenbach, who was the friend of 

 Dr. Lindley, was undoubtedly the first authority in regard to nomen- 

 clature of Orchids, but the fact of his labours having been carried on in 

 Grennany — no fault of his, but our misfortune— was a great disadvantage 

 to English cultivators. 



We predicted many years ago that Orchids would be grown for the 

 million. The original portions of this volume were, in fact, brought out 

 in the Gardsners' Chronicle, in a series of papers entitled " Orchids for 

 the -Million." It was perhaps presumption on our part to predict M'hat 



