118 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
water they require for so doing. They eventually find their way down 
among the small broken crocks, and there become a tangled, living mass, 
and that is the time that the plant is healthy and doing big things. But 
should this same plant be over-watered and become soddened for any 
length of time, these roots perish, and consequently the plant. My advice 
is to be careful in watering from the first, and the plant will do well enough. 
providing it enjoys the usual Orchid house moisture atmospherically, and a 
slight over-head bath with tepid water from the syringe on all occasions 
when the same is deemed advantageous for the other inmates of the house, 
which will of course be when the weather and the season permits. My 
reasons for not employing sphagnum moss for these difficult species is 
because it decays much more quickly than peat when alone, necessitating 
the repotting sooner, and it is this repotting which must be avoided until 
the plant has become thoroughly acclimatised and actually outgrown its 
receptacle, when it should be done with the greatest care. 
Oncidium Lanceanum is another generally troublesome species, although 
with some it will grow away most freely and do as well as any plant in the 
house. That is, of course, when it happens to find a position that suits 
it. For Orchids of this class, much depends upon the position they 
occupy. I have known this species refuse absolutely to §fOW 
satisfactorily in good places where Orchid-growing has received special 
attention. In defiance of constant attention those horrid black spots 
would appear on the foliage, and those puny new growths would appear 
that will not grow stronger. And I have entered the stove house in another 
garden where there has never been an attempt at special cultivation, and 
where all the Orchids underwent the same kind of treatment, where the 
only well-grown plant among them was this very Oncidium Lanceanum, 
standing out in all boldness with its fine, large, broad leathery leaves, 
without a mark or blemish of any description, and producing its splendid 
flower spikes year atter year as thick as an ordinary lead pencil, 
and its healthy roots rambling in all directions. Such behaviour is, to ae 
the least, strange, and sometimes a little provoking, but the fact still 
remains. I have tried growing this plant, I believe, in all ways and places, 
but my greatest successes have been in pots, occcupying a place on the stage 
with other stove and warm greenhouse plants. The method of potting and 
the same system of watering has been followed as advised for the foregoing 
species. ©. carthaginense may be most successfully cultivated in the same 
manner. . 
Oncidium Jonesianum is another teaser. There is no question that the 
teak block or raft system of culture in this instance is the best and the only 
correct one. I mention teak because it is the most durable wood when 
exposed to the atmospheric conditions of an Orchid house. This species 
