January, 1916.] THE ORCHID : REVIEW. 15 
eee 3 
RCHID culture has been revolutionised during the last three-quarters 
of a century, but it may be interesting to recall some remarks on the 
subject by the late Mr. James Bateman, author of that monumental work, 
The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala, and one of the most enthusiastic 
Orchidists that ever lived. Some of them are not inapplicable to-day. 
““ We would next direct attention to a circumstance connected with 
their cultivation, which seems to place the family in a most advantageous 
light, we mean the much greater amount of interest that will be afforded by 
even a small house, if devoted to them, than would probably be derived 
from one of four times the extent, if filled with plants of any other descrip- 
tion. Their superiority in this respect shows itself in a variety of ways. 
In the first place, the space required for each individual is usually very 
small, and while the shelves, stages, and even the flues, are preferred by 
some of the species, others of the true Air-plant and Dendrobium habit may 
be suspended over their heads, so that two distinct tiers of vegetation are 
thus obtained. In the next place the interest in the Orchideous house is 
never suffered to flag, something is constantly going on, either the opening 
of the flowers to be expected, or the progress of development of the leaves 
and pseudobulbs may be marked, or the progress of a young shoot has to be 
observed, or the life and death struggles of a recent importation have to be 
watched over, and that too with a degree of care and anxiety that could 
never be felt for ordinary plants. Then there are the seasons of growth 
and of rest, each of which has an interest peculiar to itself, since during the 
first the greatest change occurs in the circumstances and appearances of the 
plants, while during the second the greatest number of them flower, and 
thus, throughout the dreary months of winter, which, in the majority of 
Conservatories, is the season of nakedness and inaction, the Orchideous 
house is gayer than in the most glowing days of summer. The plants, too, 
with which it is so stored, are evergreens in the strictest sense of the word, 
and realise the 
THE PLEASURES OF ORCHID-GROWING. 
ee er viret semper—nec fronde caduca 
Carpitur’ 
of the Latin poet in a far higher degree than is to be seen elsewhere ; for, 
while many of their number retain the same leaves in perfect health and 
beauty for six or eight seasons together, there are none which lose them 
in a shorter period than twelve months. It is likewise worthy of remark 
that the species which are the most unwilling to part with their natural 
advantages are also the most loth to change the abode which has been 
2rtificially offered them, and they may therefore, when once firmly 
