THE MOST USEFUL ORCHIDS 39 



success is to be obtained and the fullest pleasure derived from their 

 culture. In the house chosen there should be a sufficiency of hot- 

 water pipes to enable it to be properly heated without the need of 

 severe firing. A house fitted up as an ordinary plant stove will 

 be suitable if it has a light position, and a span-roofed house is 

 obviously better than a lean-to one. The temperature should 

 not fall below 60 degrees at night in the Winter, and the day 

 temperature at that season from artificial heat should be about 

 6^ degrees, with a rise of 5 or more degrees during sunshine. 

 These figures should graduate to and from 68 or 70 degrees as a 

 minimum night temperature in the Summer, with 75 to 80 

 degrees as the usual day temperature for the latter season. In 

 very brilliant Summer weather the day temperature may rise 

 above these figures, even with ventilation. 



Cattleyas may be grown in hanging teak baskets, in pans, or in 

 ordinary flower pots, but whatever the kind of receptacle adopted 

 it must be drained to at least two-thirds of its depth with clean 

 crocks. A suitable general compost consists of fibrous peat (with 

 the fine particles removed), Osmunda fibre, and chopped sphagnum 

 in equal proportions, with a goodly addition of coarse sand and 

 finely broken crocks to keep the whole porous and sweet. The 

 rougher parts of the mixture should be laid over the crocks and 

 the rest placed firmly among the roots and about the base of the 

 plant, the crown or rhizomatous part of the plant being set in the 

 centre of the pot, but raised slightly above the level of the pot rim. 



The best season for attending to the potting of Cattleyas and 

 Laelias is when new roots appear from the base of the developing or 

 last developed pseudo-bulb, for some root at a rather earlier period 

 of their annual growth than others. Annual potting is not at all 

 necessary, indeed the whole family dislikes disturbance at the roots, 

 hence the plants should be so fixed in the pots and compost that 



