108 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
Orchid, it rightly belongs to my gardener, Mr. Thomas Poyntz, who has 
had sole charge of my houses for the past eight years. 
The plant referred to is grown in a teak basket, 15 inches by 10 inches, 
which seems to suit it admirably. During the summer months, and while 
it is making its new growths, it is suspended in the Odontoglossum house, 
a structure which is completely shaded by my residence for the whole of 
the day except the early morning. It is afterwards removed to the Mexican 
house, where the Lelias, such as anceps, autumnalis, &c., are grown, and 
here it is allowed to complete the. formation of its bulbs, to throw up its 
spikes, and to flower. 
No artificial manure of any kind has ever been used, and it has had to 
gain sustenance solely from the compost of good fibrous peat and sphagnum 
moss in which it is placed, and from rain-water, air, and light. It appears 
to me that the removal of the plant from one house to the other at the 
period stated contributes largely to its well doing, the shade and moisture 
of the Odontoglossum house helping its early growth, while the drier air 
and greater light obtainable in the Mexican house ripens up the bulbs and 
ensures longer flower stems than if kept to the cool house altogether. 
I do not say that some slight stimulant in the way of manure might not 
induce it to flower more freely, but personally I prefer to let well 
alone. 
REGINALD YOUNG. 
Fringilla, Sefton Park, Liverpool. 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
About Orchids: A Chat. By FrepERIcK BoyLe. Chapman and Hall, 
‘ Ltd., London, 1893. 
This work, as the author tells us, consists of a series of collected articles, 
which have appeared in various periodicals—The Standard, Saturday Review, 
St. Fames’s Gazette, National Review, and Longman’s Magazine—brought up 
to date by additions, especially about hybridising. The essays are nine in 
number, and “profess to be no more than chat of a literary man about 
Orchids.” They are written in fascinating style, and the reader who com- 
mences the book will not improbably be loth to lay it down again before 
reaching the last cover. Eight charming little chromo-lithographs, reduced 
from the pages of Reichenbachia, also embellish the work. 
The essays include such subjects as—My Gardening—An Orchid Sale— 
Orchids, Cool, Warm, and Hot—The Lost Orchid—An Orchid Farm— 
Orchids and Hybridising—together with a short preface. From the latter 
we gather that the author’s object is to popularise Orchid growing. 
“Savants and professionals,” he tells us, “have kept the delights of 
Orchidology all to themselves as yet. They smother them in scientific 
