6 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [JANuaRY, 1906: 
outside ditions are f. ble, are left open, and thus there is a free. 
current of air running from end to end of the structure. Several fine plants- 
of Oncidium macranthum placed just underneath one of these openings. 
seemed to enjoy having their leaves blown about, and this in the month 
of November. 
Mr. Bolton, who has been growing Orchids about twenty years, takes 
an active interest in his plants, and may be seen on most mornings, along 
with his intelligent gardener, Mr. Cain, working at his plants, or potting 
up some special variety. 
Everything about the place gives one the impression that here are- 
practised no fads. All is of the simplest construction, and designed for 
efficiency and economy, both in money and labour. And the result is. 
eminently satisfactory. H. THorp. 
NOTES ON SOME MEXICAN ORCHIDS. 
IN a recent number of the Orchid Review I observe a figure of Chysis 
bractescens cultivated in a pot and growing in an upright position. It may 
interest some of the readers of this journal to know that in a state of 
nature it never grows in such a manner, but always pendant, the pseudo- 
bulbs upside down, and each year’s growth from the dormant eyes continu 
ing downwards. It occurs generally in damp, shady forests, usually on the 
trunks of the trees, rarely on the branches, and frequently within ten or 
fifteen feet of the ground, differing in this respect from most epiphytic 
Orchids, which delight in airy positions in the topmost branches or forks of 
the trunks of the larger forest trees. 
In this latitude, 17° N., it ranges from almost sea level in damp forests 
to 2,000 feet, after which it is replaced by C. aurea to 5,000 feet, apparently 
the zonal limits of the latter, whose habit of growth is precisely like 
C. bractescens, the roots of both species running up and down several feet 
on the trunks of the trees they grow on, not spreading to any extent 
laterally, from which characteristics we might infer that the pot system of 
culture is hardly rational. 
i subjected to id 
ble drought and high temperatures 
during the resting reason, which here is from February rst to the early part 
of May, the flowering occurring in March and April synchronously with 
the starting of the new growth, which latter progresses very slowly until 
the coming of the rains towards the end of May.. During the months. 
indicated the thermometer oscillates between 75° and 95° F. in the shade 
during the greater part of the day, and from 70° to 80° at night, with very 
little rain, though doubtless there is always an appréciable humidity in the 
forest shades. 
