THE ORCHID REVIEW. 25 
so that they have a new start, "filling up the pots and covering the live 
roots, if any, with crocks and charcoal up to the rim, and surfacing over with 
sphagnum moss, afterwards keeping the surroundings nicely moist so as to 
encourage new growth. 
Here is a good recipe for the production of a healthy feeding atmosphere 
for the month of January. Get ordinary bricks and place them on the hot- 
water pipes all round the house, the distance of a roofing-slate apart ; then 
get the slates and let them rest upon the bricks, one single row lengthwise. 
Next collect a quantity of clean tree leaves (oak preferable) and lay as many 
of these as possible on the slates. Well wet them once a day when damping 
down, and note the resulting healthy aromatic smell, which, if coupled with 
sufficient fire heat to keep the proper temperature and no more, together 
with careful ventilation, is sure to have the desired effect. 
If the spring-flowering Dendrobiums are in a good sound condition, 
having been properly grown and rested, the pseudobulbs should now be 
quite plump, and the flower-buds showing at the nodes down its greater 
part. A good batch of these may now be placed in intermediate tempera- 
ture, and watered sparingly, or the buds may turn yellow or turn to growths. 
Prior to this trim off aged or useless pseudobulbs, leaving about three to 
each lead. If the variety is good these old bulbs may be propagated by 
cutting them in lengths of about three inches, and laying them on damp 
moss. I find it is a good plan to repot D. Wardianum now, before it is 
started for flowering. Once in about three years is often enough to do this. 
It is best grown in small baskets or hanging pans. Should any of the 
Dendrobiums be in a bad and debilitated condition, make no attempt to 
bloom them, but see that they are repotted in good compost—peat and 
sphagnum moss—in small pans, pots, or baskets, and started to grow in a 
gentle warmth of between 60° to 70°, watering very carefully until the young 
growths are nicely rooted. 
Seedling Dendrobiums should also now be repotted and started to grow, 
in order that they may have a long season before them, when probably they 
will mature two growths. They are best potted in small pots, afterwards 
placing them in shallow teak-wood baskets suspended from the roof. When 
a number of those small pots are placed in a basket, it is best not to pack 
sphagnum moss between, or the air cannot circulate around them, which is 
of great importance. 
The last month saw a large quantity of newly imported Orchids sold by 
auction, among them being that pretty little Cypripedium niveum. Broken 
limestone and fibrous loam is a good compost for this species and its allies. 
In order to avoid the damping off of the leaves see that the moisture does 
not lodge about them. A light position near the glass in a warm inter- 
mediate temperature suits them best. A quantity of C. spectablis was also 
sold, and this should be grown unprotected out of doors. If grown in pots 
