72 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 
away. To avoid this, some resort to the practice of dipping 
the plants on which the seeds are sown, allowing the water 
to reach only to within an inch of the surface of the com- 
post. This is better than watering overhead. Spraying 
with rain-water is an excellent means of securing uniform 
moisture, although it requires more care and attention than 
dipping. The sprayer is a great help in all stages of seed- 
ling Orchid growth, not only as a means of conveying 
moisture direct, but by spraying around the plants and on 
the staging it is a great aid to maintaining a moist atmos- 
phere. Let the moisture be conveyed in whatever manner 
it may, it must not be forgotten that the seeds will perish 
soon after germination if allowed to get quite dry, either 
from failure of moisture in the material on which they are 
sown, or from an excessively dry air surrounding them. 
Against the above-mentioned practice of sowing the seeds on 
established plants, it is urged that in that way there is no 
certain means of keeping the different crosses from being 
mixed, by reason of the seeds of one kind getting into the 
water-tank and being thus conveyed and mixed with others ; 
and by seeds falling from plants suspended overhead and 
coming up on plants beneath, and in other unexpected 
places. Such acquisitions, though often very acceptable, are 
puzzling, as there is no record of their origin, or if they 
come up amongst seeds which have a record, the chance 
introductions sometimes have a wrong parentage assigned 
to them. 
To lessen such risks, it is the custom of some growers 
to arrange a seed-raising case, constructed like an ordinary 
propagating case, in form like a miniature lean-to, or span- 
roofed Orchid house. This is arranged over a part of the 
