NovEMBER, 1906. | THE ORCHID REVIEW. 333 
latter is the Odontoglossum’s favourite means of quitting. I have exhausted 
all my little stock of ingenuity in trying to get rid of this grub—methylated 
spirit, ether, and various insecticides in solution—and although I am 
satisfied that 1 have made him sick from time to time, and even brought 
about his death, the Orchid has invariably expired first, the sphagnum next, 
the grub making a reluctant third. We have tried to stare him out of 
countenance (through a glass) until we have had shooting pains in the socket 
of the eye, but he has not been in any way discomfited. I have pushed 
needles into him and left him as an object lesson for his relatives, who have 
nevertheless continued the attack with unabated vigour, and in the end 
we—that is myself and the seedlings—have capitulated. It is the delicate 
and slow growing seedlings, such as the Sophronitis crosses, which are in 
most danger; a robust grower quickly gets a tough skin and a root, when 
the grub will stop molesting it, for he is nothing if not an epicure. This 
grub is apparently most active when the surface is dry. 
Now that the fungus question is settled to the satisfaction of Argus 
(although it has not yet been handed round!), perhaps some one will tell 
us how to kill this grub—or, better still, its eggs—without injuring the 
moss, or rendering it distasteful to the embryonic seedlings. [Has this grub 
or insect been identified? Weare not sure what it is. A knowledge of its 
history might suggest some remedy.—Ep.]. 
EcHo OF THE HEAT WAVE.—I had some conversation with an eminent 
and successful Odontoglossum hybridist at a recent meeting in Vincent 
Square, and he was lamenting the havoc that the heat wave of August and 
September made among his germinating Odontoglossum seedlings. 
Although retrospective, I may be forgiven for alluding to this, as I want to 
Pass an opinion; for, although the germinating Odontoglossums at 
Chessington did not make much headway then, they came bravely through 
the heat, and as London was about the hottest place in the British Isles 
there must be a reason. _I attribute our success (or luck) in this instance 
to our having double Jath blinds for shading on the seedling house, the top 
one being over a foot, and the lower one only a matter of an inch or two, 
from the glass. With an outside temperature of something over go° in the 
Shade, the house was not cool by any means, but the glass was cool, and 
the plants standing immediately underneath this had the benefit of it. 
When the weather became cooler we used the bottom blind only. The 
question of shading is of much more importance than is perhaps generally 
thought, and it is also a question upon which there is some hsm meatal of 
opinion. [The best means of keeping the temperature down in a — 
house during very hot weather without cutting off too much light vey 
important one, and the experience of others would be interesting.—Ep.]. 
— 
