Avais, 1906.) THE ORCHID REVIEW. 115 
roots run freely in the new sphagnum, but old and dead sphagnum has no 
attraction for them, and at its best I believe it is more a mechanical and 
neutral agency than anything else. 
It might be urged that plants like Phalaenopsis grow well in it, which 
disproves its being neutral, but rain-water will supply most of the 
constituents which the plant requires at the root—when, and especially 
hear towns, containing some mineral elements—and then, of course, we 
know the functions of the leaves, and the large part they play in the 
absorption of food from the atmosphere. Every plant requires mineral 
substance, and the small quantities which the Phalaenopsis will require the 
sphagnum must be called upon to supply. I do not know if it has ever 
been tried, but the addition of a sprinkling of wood ashes to a wholly 
sphagnum moss compost for succulent growers like Phalenopsis, might be 
of very great advantage. For plants that one expects to be but a short 
time in the pot the question is not so urgent, but what we are concerned 
with is to use a compost that will meet the requirements of a plant for two 
or three years without falling to pieces or losing its virtue, and sphagnum 
moss does not lend itself to this end. As a rooting medium, kept open by 
being mixed with crocks or sand, sphagnum may claim to be some good, 
but the hungriness of such a mixture would compel us to fall back on the 
use of guano or some other manure, which, of course, is not our intention. 
A compost may be all that can be desired chemically, but plants require 
something more than this. 
Hard-growing, epiphital Orchids seem to want a firm yet porous rooting 
medium, so that the roots may get plenty of air, if they are to produce good 
flowers, with flower stems able to support them. Belgian leaf-soil is quite 
a different thing to our oak leaves. It is well decomposed, and is mixed 
with a fine soft sand, and if used alone for potting there is but little sub- 
sidence afterwards; but I do not recommend it, and most, if not all, 
English growers who have given it a fair trial, have gone back to a compost 
more akin to the old one, and they are still back-sliding. 
In scanning through the last few volumes of the Orchid Review I have 
discovered some interesting reading touching on the subject. Among 
other things, I dropped across a foreign commission who were looking into 
the matter, and find them examining a Cattleya Mossiz, potted in Belgian 
leaf soil, which had beer. undisturbed for five years, and the roots and soil 
were still in good condition. That is some years ago now, and I am 
wondering if that plant has been disturbed yet! A Cattleya rhizome travels 
a good long way in five years—even in an ordinary peat and moss mixture— 
and it would be instructive to know the relative sizes of the plant and pot 
when they first made each other’s acquaintance. At any rate, nothing 
hing that achi has been recorded in this country. 
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