44 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 
the idea that they are suited for taking up stimulating 
liquid in the manner common to fibrous-rooted plants. 
On the general question of the use of stimulants in 
Orchid culture many clever men have carried out experi- 
ments. The late Dr. A. H. Smee went into the question, 
basing his experiments on the chemical constituents of the 
plants themselves, which is not an infallible guide. 
The late Norman C. Cookson carefully studied the 
subject, and he recommended for experiment the following 
formula :— 
Potassium nitrate (saltpetre), 3 oz. 
Ammonium phosphate, 2 oz. 
Dissolve in a three-gallon jar of soft water, and when 
watering growing Orchids, or those perfecting their flowers, 
add one ounce of the solution to each gallon of water. 
Again it must be urged that those experimenting with 
manures must do so only on growing plants, and when 
growth is completed it must be stopped. No Orchid 
grower should undertake such experiments without first 
obtaining his employer’s concurrence. 
CHAPTER X 
RESTING ORCHIDS 
WHILST we may definitely say that all Orchids require 
a resting season in some degree, the cultivator must be 
careful to arrange the resting season, in the matter of its 
duration and other particulars, in accordance with the 
nature of the plant, for in some classes of Orchids it is very 
