DrECEMBER, 1906.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 373 
If you area town grower, and the “‘guv’nor” happens to be a native, 
do not complain to him about the fog or smoke. He will take it personally. 
Do not attribute all calamities which may befall the collection during 
the year to the fortnight you were away on your holiday. 
Have as good an opinion of your Orchids—and, incidently, yourself—in 
the future as you have consistently had in the past, but do not expect other 
people to share that opinion in just the same degree. 
An explanation which is half an apology—A few words of a personal 
nature may be excused me at the end of the year, for my last appearance 
as Calendar writer. I confess that I commenced the year choke full of 
ideas, which were to be trumpeted forth to that world circumscribed by the 
circulation of the Orchid Review, but by the time these ideas began to take 
shape on paper, I discovered, much to my despair, that pretty well all that 
I had to say about growing Orchids—and some more—had already been 
said, more than once, and very well said, too. I have never been able to 
recover completely during the year, being at every step reminded of it, 
and the strenuous, if ineffectual, efforts which I have made to steer clear of 
the beaten path—which is beginning to show signs of hard wear—have 
made the Calendar of Operations for the year somewhat ungainly, and 
certainly very incomplete. 
[We cannot quite agree with the last remark, and we regret that Mr. 
Black has used up all his ideas for the present.—Eb. | 
We have much pleasure in announcing that Mr. W. P. Bound, of 
Gatton Park, whose success as a grower is well known, will contribute 
the Calendar of Operations for next year. 
ORCHIDS IN THE OPEN AIR DURING SUMMER. 
Ir is often said that Orchids are tender subjects to deal with, but I do not 
think that is so. Last year one of my Oncidiums (O. phymatochilum) 
began to show unsatisfactory signs, so I decided on an experiment. It 
was taken out of the pot, with the compost adhering to the roots, and tied 
fast to a branch of a tree in my garden, with no protection save the leaves 
and branches above. There it remained from the middle of last June till 
the third week in September, exposed to all the varying kinds of weather 
that is experienced some seven miles from Manchester, and an atmosphere 
not by any means ideal. When it was taken down several bulbs were soft. 
These were taken off the plant, which was then fastened to a teak block 
and suspended in the Cypripedium house, and to-day—November 21—it is 
throwing up new growths with all the vigour of a newly-imported piece. 
Evidently it takes a lot to kill Orchids, but it is possible to drown them 
with too much water or roast them to death with too much heat. T: 
