4 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [ JANUARY, 1907. 
ORCHID HOUSES AT CHILLINGHAM CASTLE, 
NORTHUMBERLAND. 
Tue annexed illustration represents the fine range of Orchid houses erected 
some time ago for the Right Hon. the Earl of Tankerville, at Chillingham 
Castle, Northumberland, of which’ we have recently learned a few 
particulars from Mr. Hunter. Therange practically consists of nine houses, 
there being a corridor 120 feet in length, attached to a north wall, and 
divided into three compartments, and six other houses, each thirty-five feet 
long, extending from the corridor at right angles, and running north and 
south. These comprise three Odontoglossum houses, a Cattleya house, a 
Cypripedium house, and a seedling house, while the three divisions of the 
corridor are utilised, one for Dendrobiums and Lzlias, one for Cymbidiums 
tand Miltonias, and the third for a resting house during the winter. Five of 
the houses, as will be seen, are span-roofed, and are fifteen feet wide, the 
Fig. 1. ORcHID Houses AT CHILLINGHAM CASTLE. 
glass roof resting directly on the brick walls, which are four feet high and 
furnished with shutters in the sides and end.. Thus all the light comes 
from the glass roof, including the ends above the walls, and Mr. Hunter 
states that he finds Orchids do much better in houses of this kind. These 
houses have side and centre stages, the former two feet nine inches wide, 
and the latter five feet, and arranged in steps, $o that the plants fall accord- 
ing to the slope of the roof. The stages are of teak, resting on an iron 
framework. There is a bottom stage, covered with a layer of coke, while 
the upper stage is made of teak rails, fixed two inches apart, so as to permit 
of a free circulation of air. There-are five rows of hot-water pipes in each 
house, these branching from a single pipe running throughout the corridor, 
and all acting as flows and returns. There are two very powerful boilers, 
called the ‘‘ Ideal,” but only one is used at a time. They are worked 
alternately fora month at a time, and cleaned before. being started agai\- 
