304 THE ORCHID REVIEW. (OCTOBER, 1906. 
the pores of the leaves, so that they may be able to properly carry on their 
functions; but clean leaves need not be washed. For instance, the bulb 
and leaf just finished should not require washing. Wash the plants that 
are dirty or infected by insects, but not those that are already clean. While 
disliking dirty foliage, I also dislike the unnatural polish that follows a good 
rub up. I should not recommend the washing of the foliage of Odonto- 
glossum crispum—a comprehensive wash, I mean—for I am sure that a 
good many yellow leaves would follow. 
Pot sCRUBBING.—I honestly do not think that it matters much to the 
plant whether the pots are scrubbed or not, but clean pots look smart, and 
if there is time to keep them clean, do it. The best grown collection of 
Odontoglossums—on consideration, let me say one of the best—I haveever 
seen had the pots smothered in what looked like seaweed, so green were 
they, and the grower believed in it. It is difficult to gainsay evidence of 
this kind, although it is easy to say that the plants were doing well for other 
reasons, and in spite of this. I once knew a lady who owned a greenhouse 
full of hardy ferns, and had an old gardener. This lady once read a 
primer on gardening, from which she gleaned that plants breathed 
through the pots, or something to that effect, and had her pots kept 
scrupulously clean ever afterwards. The old gardener washed them once 
a week—every Saturday. But her ferns did not grow any better than 
other. people’s, if as well, and the old gardener said worse—only, perhaps, 
owing to the weekly wash, he might have been prejudiced. This lady 
evidently had little power of observation, or she would have discovered 
that her excessive pot scrubbing was being badly rewarded, and it 
seemed almost unkind, after the primer, that other people’s ferns did 
grow, although the pots were sometimes dirty. If Mr. Crawshay’s glass 
pots have not taught us anything else, they show that porosity in an 
Odontoglossum receptacle is not indispensable. 
CYPRIPEDES As TOWN PLANTS.—It has frequently been remarked that 
Cypripedes are good town plants, and a correspondent in the Manchester 
district writes :—‘‘I have a small collection of Cypripedes and Odontos, 
but the Cypripedes stand our dirty damp climate best. The Odonto 
blooms come slightly smaller each time. I am at business all day, and my 
plants have to rough it, so perhaps that explains it, but the Cypripedes 
bloom away as if they liked it.””. These shade-loving Orchids are probably 
less affected by dull weather and fog than most others, and we have cae’ 
the flowers of Dendrobium Phalznopsis spoilt by a single night’s fog whel 
Cypripedes were untouched. The experience of amateurs on this point 
would be acceptable. 
