252 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
Oncidium hastatum is now in flower, and is always greatly admired. 
I prefer to grow this species in pots. After the flowers are past, and when 
the new growth is pushing from the base, it may be repotted, if required. 
It is an Orchid worth the best of attention, and growing well, but it often 
gets into a bad condition owing principally to the flower spike remaining on 
too long, or by the treatment being too cold during winter, just when it is 
growing. It should then have the warmth of the Cattleya house, as should 
any other Oncidium that has not finished its growth by October. 
When repotting Oncidiums use pots of a reasonable size only, as over- 
potting Orchids is always a very great mistake. The pots should be three 
parts drained with crocks and charcoal, as the crocks keep much sweeter 
when intermixed with charcoal. It may seem to many a simple matter to 
crock a pot, but there is a right and a wrong way even in that, and the plant 
that is planted in a pot correctly crocked, will last longer in a good and 
sound condition than when incorrectly done. First place one or two large 
inverted pieces over the hole at the bottom, then over these a layer broken 
smaller, while the top and final layer should be about two inches in depth, 
and broken very small—from half-an-inch to an inch in size—so that they 
lay quite level. Iam not as a rule an advocate for mixing crocks and 
charcoal in with the compost when the latter is of first class quality, but if 
the peat is poor, having no fibre, then I think it is a good plan to do so, as 
it — cme tees by ihita the whole open and porous. 
t is not one of the easiest to culti- 
vate. It oe one freely hen newly imported, but in the course of a 
few years dwindles, and often, without so much as producing one single 
flower spike to compensate for trouble taken, will grow less by degrees 
until it finally disappears. I have had the best results from the following 
treatment :—In the first place it may be roughly described as being a cool 
Orchid, but a sun-loving one, and, therefore, it should have an abundance 
of air, but never be shaded. The plants may be fixed to blocks of wood 
and so grown suspended, but I do not recommend block treatment gen- 
erally, greatly preferring baskets or pans, with the usual peat and sphagnum 
moss as a compost. The moss when first imported may probably be ill- 
shaped for fixing in a basket. But although its habit of growth is strag- 
gling, a way can generally be found out of the difficulty, and the plant 
finally secured in the basket, which, when done, is much more easily and 
better managed than a block. During summer, when growth is active, it 
may be syringed frequently, but during winter a long and very dry rest 
must be given. The treatment I have previously advised for Barkerias is 
the best possible one to give to this species. ©. madrense is another of the 
Mexican Odontoglots, and is a very pretty little species. It should be 
grown in small pans, and, as in the case of O. Rossii, O. Cervantesil, and 
