OcroseR, 1906.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 295 
Calanthes of the vestita order grow well on decayed wood, an old 
stump thoroughly rotten, broken into pieces, mixed with the fine fibry 
roots of selaginellas, forming an excellent compost; also for all Javan 
Cymbidiums. Keep them on the dry side, and well drained. Cypripedium 
javanicum is also best kept fairly dry. I grow mine in leaf mould and 
fine soil, but if kept constantly moist they rot rapidly. I keep them dry, 
and give them as much light as I can without sun, and they are doing 
much better now, though I lost a good number by letting them get soaked 
every day in the open. 
All the kinds which will grow on moss form excellent subjects for 
basket treatment. Many of the Vandas, after establishing themselves on 
their balls or pads of moss, are transferred to Cedar baskets, which gives 
the roots further opportunity to extend, besides presenting a more pleasing 
appearance. Aérides and Saccolabiums are also treated in this way, and 
root on to the wood very soon. 
I am afraid that at the present time, when such species are more or less 
neglected, this account will not prove of much interest to readers of the 
Orchid Review, but you will easily understand that for anyone engaged in 
planting life out here, it would be folly and waste of both time and money 
to acquire a costly collection of other Orchids, or hybrids, or even to do 
much in the way of hybridising oneself. Constantly moving about, and 
changing estates, is much more the mle than the exception. 
Much of the pleasure in cultivating these beautiful and interesting 
plants is derived from the personal search and the odd hours of jungle 
hunting, by one’s self. It is somewhat lonely in the almost unbroken 
silence of the forest, with never a sound but the drip, drip of the leaves 
during the rains, the snapping of twigs under foot, or the sudden scurry of 
alizard. Unlike an English woodland, which is full of the song of birds, 
here all forms of life are silent. A noiseless bird flits across from one 
bamboo clump to another, and now and again a parrot or a monkey sounds 
a warning note at the unaccustomed noise of the human foot below, but 
the fascination of the probable discovery is as attractive as fishing, for one 
never knows what will reward patient search and effort. Sometimes an 
Orchid, now and again an aroid—a beautiful Alocasia—or a new plant, 
Perhaps in a watercourse or a steep ravine, where the sun’s rays never 
penetrate, a lovely fern whose fronds are perpetually moistened by me 
spray from a cascade or the drip from a hidden spring. Hours pass by un- 
Noticed, and after trudging up and down ravines, in beds of me 
Streams, it is a pleasure to emerge into the bright sunshine, and see the 
blue skies once more, especially if one loses one’s bearings, as it 1s oad 
fasy to do, dodging about to all points of the compass. oe ome 
myself, and after getting into the bed of a watercourse, Se 
