280 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
especially at this autumnal season. Damp down three times a day; give 
an abundance of air; and here also shade only when necessary, for if too 
heavily shaded at this season cool Orchids become drawn and weakly and 
the foliage unable to support its own weight, a condition of things which 
must be avoided. 
It has again become advisable to have recourse to fire-heat in the 
intermediate and warm houses during the night—in fact, for the latter 
there has been but few nights this summer when it has been safe to 
dispense with artificial warmth altogether, as the weather has been some- 
what unseasonable. The nights are now getting chilly, and it is better 
to have sufficient warmth in the hot-water pipes, to admit of ventilation, 
rather than to have the ventilators tightly closed without such warmth. 
The first conditions are favourable to a pure and healthy growth, while 
the latter conditions are favourable only to disease in one or another of its 
many forms. Although the thermometer may not fall below a given point, 
yet the atmosphere becomes too heavily charged with moisture, which is 
stagnant and unwholesome, not resembling in the least the natural con- 
ditions under which they grow. I therefore advise, in order that the 
proper ripening process may proceed uninterruptedly, that a little warmth 
be now kept in the pipes each night, even though it be but for a few hours, 
and in dull, cold weather during the day also. 
It frequently happens that it is very late in the season before some 
Orchids commence to form their annual growth, and this is particularly 
noticeable among the free and early summer-flowering Cattleyas of the 
labiata section, such, for instance, as Cattleya Mossiz, C. Mendelii, and 
sometimes C. Triane. Some of these species may have flowered regularly 
and well for several years in succession, and getting a little later each year, 
may now only just be pushing forth their new breaks. This state of affairs 
need not be wondered at, if we take into consideration the drawbacks the 
plants have under artificial treatment. I have sometimes noticed plants 
gradually get so late that they have set themselves right again by skipping 
a season, and although making roots plentifully will make no pseudobulbs, 
and by this means take a complete rest, and are enabled to commence 
growing early the following spring. In this way they are set right again 
for several years. Sometimes, however, they are tempted to make a start 
at this late date, and where such is the case they must be placed at the 
warmest part of the house, and given every encouragement to grow. This 
lateness of growth should be avoided as much as possible, which depends 
largely upon the cultivation and attention the plants receive at their various 
seasons of activity and rest: for instance, if the light is insufficient during 
winter they are liable to become weakened, although at the time the fact is 
not perceptible. Houses giving the greatest amount of light are preferable. 
‘The same method should be adopted and practised on those plants that are 
