74 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
NOTES FROM FLORIDA. 
Last spring and summer my Orchids received heavy fertilization two or 
three times a week. Nitrate of potash and phosphate of ammonia were 
added to the water with which the plants were daily hosed, and every night 
the greenhouse was closed and saucers of carbonate of ammonia distributed 
through the house. The Orchids a!l grew luxuriantly until September, 
when I began to have trouble—new shoots coming scorched and disfigured 
and frequently rotting off. The weather changed at the same time from 
extreme and unseasonable drought to constant rain and _ saturated 
atmosphere, with a daily temperature over go°. This temperature, how- 
ever, is usual all the summer. 
Not knowing the cause of my trouble, I stopped fertilizing and have not 
resumed the practice, but the disease continued, and I have not yet had a 
clean and perfect growth on any of the plants, although the weather has 
varied through all sorts of seasonable changes. The cause seems to be 
yellow thrips, and not due to either weather or fertilizer. | The insect was 
entirely new to me, and was present in such small numbers—only three or 
four to each young growth—that it seemed impossible that it should be 
respons:ble for such injury to the plants. I have fumigated thoroughly with 
nicotine—making the vapor so strong that a person could not remain in the 
house more than a minute or two, and keeping up the evaporation all day 
long—and am now trying the “XL All,” and also spraying with a solution 
of pyrethrum (insect powder), and I think the enemy is routed. 
During the six months of fertilizing I evaporated nearly thirty pounds 
of carbonate of ammonia in the greenhouse (15 X 60 feet, 11 feet high). 
The saucers were always put in the same place every night, and there were 
Cattleyas and other Orchids within six inches of the ammonia lumps, and 
consequently fairly soaked with the fumes every night; but they were not 
injured, and, in fact, averaged rather better in appearance than those farther 
away. Very likely the fumes may have kept the thrips away from them to 
some extent. Most of the Cattleyas and Dendrobiums made a second 
growth as soon as they finished the first, and many three-year old seedlings 
doubled and quadrupled in size. 
One hybrid, Cattleya intermedia 2 x Loddigesii ¢, had always been 
precocious beyond its mates—at six months it had a basal disk three-eighths 
of an inch across, its first leaf was half an inch long and broad, while the 
rest of the plants from the same pod remained of average size. Last 
summer it was 34 years old, and flowered from both of two strong leads. 
The sepals, petals, and front lobe of the lip were all of palest lavender, just 
a Hinge, and the remainder of the lip creamy white. All three lobes were 
charmingly frilled; the flowers being 4: inches across, and quite 
