SEPTEMBER, I91S.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 259 
By W. H. Wuire, for many years Orchid Grower to the 
late Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., K.C.V.O. 
[ CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS FOR SEPTEMBER. ° 
T is, of course, impossible to forecast what the weather is likely to be 
during September, but should it continue damp and unsettled, as it 
has been during the greater part of August, the management of Orchids 
should be modified as regards atmospheric moisture, it being a mistake to 
maintain the same standard as in warm dry weather. And more especially 
should this be the case in the Cattleya, Intermediate, and Cool houses. As 
regards the warmer division, a certain amount of moisture should be 
maintained, in order to counteract the drying effects of artificial heat 
necessary in keeping up a proper temperature. But even here, especially 
in low-lying districts, damping down should not be too frequently performed. 
Until there is need of more artificial heat, the East Indian, Cattleya, and 
Mexican divisions may be damped down to a moderate extent morning and 
evening, while the Intermediate and Odontoglossum houses will have the 
requirements of the plants met by one thorough damping down in the 
morning in dull weather, merely sprinkling the paths again lightly in the 
afternoon if the day has been sunny. It is not good practice to keep on 
damping down and syringing each time the air in the houses gets in the 
least degree dry, especially in the autumn, when a great number of the 
plants are finishing up, or have completed their growth for the season. To 
enable the new growths and new pseudobulbs to mature, and to prevent or 
check the development of spot, to which nearly all Orchids are liable, each 
division should be allowed to get comparatively dry for a few hours during 
the middle of the day. 
It is also very important, at this season, that plenty of sunshine should 
reach such plants as the deciduous Calanthes, Dendrobiums that have 
completed their growth, Thunias, Cattleyas and Lelias, terete-leaved 
Vandas, Catasetums, Cycnoches, Mormodes, Pleiones, Schomburgkias, &c., 
also those plants which occupy the Mexican division, and that the house or 
division in which these plants are should be well ventilated, as much fresh 
air as possible being admitted to every part whenever it can be done without 
causing any great fluctuation in the temperatures. In the absence of 
sunshine the plants do not dry up so quickly as the grower would like, and 
a good deal of judgment is required in affording water, so that the operator 
will have to be guided by the state of each plant, whether in active growth, 
at rest, or approaching the flowering stage. 
It will also be necessary to gradually expose the collection, as a whole, 
to more sunlight, and to reduce the amount of shading. Discrimination 
