156 HOME AND GARDEN 



an arrangement of rockwork for the better planting 

 of Ferns, and temporary placing of Orchids and other 

 plants on rocky shelves and niches hidden by the 

 growing greenery. 



So many are the lovely kinds of tropical Orchids 

 that it would be diificult to make a small enough 

 selection, but it would include some of the noble 

 Cattleyas whose magnificent blooms show all that is 

 best in purple and Ulac colourings ; the best forms of 

 the free-flowering Cselogyne of tenderest white; the 

 splendid orange, yellow, and buff of Dendrobium ; 

 some long wreaths of brown and yellow Odontoglossum, 

 leopard-spotted and tiger-striped ; the tender white- 

 shaded rosiness of Lycaste ; the thick ivory-white of 

 Angraecum, a flower of singular nobility, coming in 

 the deadest of the winter months ; and the stately 

 Phaius, with its dignified upright bearing, large hand- 

 some leaves, and immense spikes of flower of white 

 and pink and rosy-brown. 



In my tropical houses, as everywhere else, the aim 

 would be to have the most beautiful plants beautifully 

 arranged. Nothing would be admitted merely because 

 it was curious or rare or costly. There should be no 

 unbeautiful audacities like Anthurium, no evil little 

 curiosities such as Stapelia, no insignificant plants of 

 unworthy price, such as people crowd to look at at 

 shows because they are valued at a hundred guineas ; 

 none of the usual commonplace unworthinesses, as 

 of houses full of the coarse nettle-like Coleus, most 



