182 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
this month take their turn at the potting bench, and have done to them 
what may be required. The usual compost and the usual method of 
potting, as before given, should be meted out to the whole of this genus. 
When doing C. Bowringiana let them be potted rather high up, as the 
thizome strikes a downward course, and if not well raised will soon get 
below the level of the rim. That most beautiful Cattleya Dowiana aurea, 
if not already done up and made comfortable, should be delayed no longer. 
This species does not possess the vigorous constitution of many others of 
the same genus. Our dull winters seem to rob it of a good deal of vitality, 
and much trouble is experienced where the air is laden with smoke, never 
theless, with careful attention, it does fairly well. We grow ours in rather 
more warmth than is given to the majority, and also C. Eldorado, © 
I , C. Luedd i and C. Aclandiz; in fact, the last- 
named does best suspended in baskets with the Dendrobiums. C. Skinnetl 
is very showy now in bloom, and is easily grown, and requires nothing more 
than what the Cattleya house affords. The C. Warscewiczii (gigas) ate 
now growing apace in their position at the lightest part of the house. The 
flower sheaths are showing this time on nearly every plant, large and 
small, as though it was a species most prolific, which is rather unusual. 
What can be the cause? Perhaps—as seems very feasible—it is the result 
of the particularly bright and hot autumn of last year. 
Get on with the potting generally wherever it is practicable. The 
Miltonia vexillarias may now be done. 
Unless very successful with this 
species, do not aim at growing them into too large specimens, as it usually 
ends in failure. It is safer to keep them in small pots, and when a plant 
teaches large dimensions it is better to divide it and make smaller ones: 
Drain the pots—48's or 32's are the most suitable—about three-parts full 
with clean crocks, intermixed with a little charcoal. The top layer of crocks 
should be broken small. Use good fibrous peat and fresh sphagnum moss 
in equal proportions. Raise the plants rather high, and build the compost 
well up to the base of the last formed pseudobulb, so that the roots may 
speedily enter, and make sure that the plant is well supported where 
necessary with neat sticks until it is self-supporting. Odontoglossum 
citrosmum should also be repotted if necessary. It is an Orchid requiring 
but little“root disturbance, and should be placed in pans or baskets in # 
firm compost of two parts peat and one part sphagnum moss, and sus- 
pended. 
It will not be an easy matter to keep the atmosphere at this time of the 
year too moist, especially for the Cool house Orchids, the great volume of 
ventilation soon drying it up. Thrips, Aphides, and other pests, which 
are the frequent cause of so much mischief, are apt to increase rather 
quickly in this house at this season, and these it is absolutely necessary 
