104 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



sented solid, bat may also be partially glazed. The 

 stages consist of slate slabs, and under the centre 

 stage runs a large open tank, with four hot-water 

 pipes passing through it for purposes already ex- 

 plained. Four four -inch pipes are also carried 

 under each side. This house is shown as furnished 

 with a mixed collection of stove-plants. Orchids, and 

 climbers, for all of which there is ample space and 

 light in so large an erection ; and such houses, well 

 furnished, are perhaps among the choicest delights 

 of high-class gardening. Nevertheless, let not what 

 has been said about humbler structures be forgotten. 



Internal Arrangements.— In all the illus- 

 trations we have given the plants have been in pots, 

 and the pots arranged on shelves and stages. For 

 commercial purposes this is inevitable. And the 

 value of individual plants, the special culture needed 

 by many, and other causes, have combined to con- 

 tinue the pot-and-stage modes of culture and 

 arrangement in most private collections. But one 

 has only to enter the large tropical houses at Kew, 

 Chatsworth, or Trentham, the Botanic Gardens at 

 Regent's Park, or Glasgow, and many other noble 

 public and private collections, to note the immense 

 improvement of the planting-out system. It is hardly 

 too much to affirm that the latter is essential to the 

 full development of tropical vegetation in its true 

 character. By planting out different families in 

 groups, or even considerable masses of one family — 

 such as, for example, the Crotons and Dracaenas — 

 such families would grow as it were in dignity and 

 magnitude beyond any possible idea of their de- 

 corative capabilities as estimated by the pot-and- 

 stage mode of culture and arrangement. While, as 

 for the grouping of Orchids in masses, freed from 

 the degrading mercantile ideas of pot-portability, 

 and instant conversion into pounds sterling under 

 the hammer, the effect would surpass anything that 

 has yet been attempted in j)lant-grouj)ing. Such 

 groupings have been at times successfully at- 

 tempted for great decorations at festivals and public 

 events, where aiU the pots were hidden, and only 

 glowing Orchids waved over a sea of verdure. But 

 a troj)ical rock garden furnished, the pocketed walls 

 filled, the roof -rafters draped with drooping Orchids 

 in permanency and in bulk ! Such sights may be- 

 come the rich cream of the permanent decorative 

 floriculture of our near future. As Orchids grow into 

 bulk and multiply, and our imports, already so 

 enormous, also increase, possibly a hundredfold, 

 housefuls of permanent Orchids planted out in 

 groups will probably become almost as common as 

 Ferneries are to-day. 



But such brilliant displays and masterly com- 

 binations of beauty m masse will never supersede 



the present methods of pot-culture. These wiU 

 always be needful to keep stock, and preserve many 

 of the species in health, that might probably suffer, 

 or even succumb, to the wider, and hence perhaps 

 less careful, culture of massed-out Orchids. . 



Meanwhile much of the gorgeous effect of planting 

 out is now obtained in large plant-stoves by massing 

 the Orchids in flower at any given time into large 

 vases, baskets, ti-oughs, or on shelves or stages with 

 ornamental sides of Minton tiles, china, iron-stone, 

 or other ornamental substances. These hide the 

 Orchid-pots and pans, and the surface may be filled 

 in with moss, Lycopodiums, or other prostrate 

 verdant plants, so that only beauty of coloiir, fresh- 

 ness of verdure, and sweetness of perfume may be 

 seen and enjoyed. 



No doubt there are formidable objections to the 

 plan of grouping Orchids. The fii'st and chief is 

 the cost of procuring sufficient plants. Cheap as 

 Orchids ha^•e become relatively to what they once 

 were, it absorbs a good deal of capital to purchase 

 them in bulk, though that is really the cheapest 

 way to purchase them ; and, of course, it is only 

 those who have a considerable number that could 

 plant them out in groups. Many Orchids would 

 probably, however, gi'ow far more rapidly, and 

 multiply faster, if grown in this more natural way, 

 than when cribbed, cabined, and confined in pots 

 and baskets. 



As to insects, all the base-lines, soil, and plants 

 used should be thoroughly clean at starting, and 

 then the probability is that they would continue 

 so. Then as to the surface verdiire, it would be 

 quite as useful as a trap, or for a blind. The in- 

 sects would lie at ease and with a sense of security 

 under it, and the cultivator taking advantage of 

 these facts could the more readily find, and give a 

 good account of, most of them. 



Stove-plants and Orchids Mixed, or Each. 

 Separately. — No doubt the general tendency is to 

 grow these two classes of plants separatel}', and even 

 different families of plants belonging to each section 

 also by themselves. Yet it is quite possible to gTow 

 stove and Orchids mixed, or indeed either, in houses 

 not specially devoted to one or both. For example, 

 not a few of the finest specimens of Aerides, Cattleyas, 

 and Dendrobiums ever seen by the writer were grown 

 under the shade of Vines. True, the Vines were 

 turned out of doors for about three months, from 

 October to January, which enabled a temperature 

 of about 60° to be maintained during that period. 

 The Aerides were suspended on blocks at a distance 

 of two feet from the roof, and were very fine ex- 

 amples of high cultivation. Such cases, however, 

 are cited more to encourage those who may probably 



