January, 1906.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 5 
five and six inch pots. The new growths and roots were really fine, and 
promised a big blaze of bloom in their due season. I also noticed a healthy 
lot of about one hundred plants of the beautiful but rare Oncidium 
olivaceum, many of which were carrying good spikes of reddish brown and 
purple flowers. A recently imported lot of Cattleya Mendelii were pointed 
out to me as having already bloomed many valuable varieties. 
But Odontoglossums form the chief feature of Mr. Bolton’s collection, 
and of these he grows about seventy thousand, most of the good varieties 
being well represented, and here, like most other collections where these 
Odontoglossum gems are grown, they are rarely allowed to flower, being 
divided and propagated for all they are worth. For instance O. crispum 
Lindeni a single plant eighteen months ago, is now three fine plants. The 
‘Odontos. generally are splendidly grown, and make big fine bulbs, which 
carry spikes of from fifteen to twenty flowers, and often more. 
And now a few words as to the cultural methods by which such 
satisfactory results are attained. I think that these will come as a rude 
shock to the anti-leafmouldist, anti-syringist, and the advocate of top 
ventilation. The basis of the compost all through the establishment is 
decayed leaves and chopped sphagnum moss. Mr. Bolton assured me he 
had not used an ounce of peat for his Orchids during this last seven years! 
and when you glance through the gamut of plants cultivated at Wilderspool, 
the statement seems scarcely credible. Yet so it is, but this mixture is 
slightly varied for the different genera. For Cypripedi bidi 
etc., he adds to the leaf mould and moss a good sprinkling of marly loam, 
which he procures locally, and some finely broken crocks and sand, and in 
this they revel. Mr. Bolton also finds that most of the Miltonias, 
particularly M. vexillaria, thrive much better with the addition of this loam. 
Cattleyas, Odontoglossums, Oncidiums, &c., are put in leaves and moss in 
about equal proportions, with a good sprinkling of sand. A fine batch of 
Phalenopsis amabilis Rimestadtiana and O. Schilleriana were growing finely 
in this, and sending up strong flower spikes. These were down on the 
stages, potted in ordinary pots. 
So much for the anti-leafmouldist, and now for the anti-syringist. I 
‘may safely say that, for all practical purposes, syringing is the only method 
of watering adopted throughout the establishment, and this, as Mr. Cain 
says, is done whenever they require watering, foliage and flowers, and 
everything, receiving their due share, and he has never yet seen any 
harmful results. This treatment keeps the compost in that nice moist 
{not wet) condition, which is undoubtedly the secret of success with this 
leaf and moss compost. 
The houses, too, are constructed without top ventilation, but at the ends 
several panes of glass are made to open and shut, and these, when the 
