﻿June, 1904-! THE ORCHID REVIEW. 165 



Many are the spikes that measure a yard in length, most bulbs produce two 

 spikes, some three; even from the apex of the bulb sometimes we get a spike, 

 and with this perfect sunning or maturation even the smallest bulbs the size 

 of a hazel nut attempt to bloom. The majority of our plants are in live and 

 six inch pots ; when repotting these will have to go into seven and eight inch 

 pans, for this fibre being so indestructible and so permeated with roots, one 

 cannot remove a particle of it except, perhaps, at the side where the old 

 bulbs are. This may sound like "Yankee bluff,'' but it is not "bluff," 

 neitheram I a "Yankee," but was probably the first one to use Polypodium 

 fibre over twenty years ago, when living in Ireland, where one could tear 

 off great mats of it from the trees as it luxuriated in that damp climate 



There is a very clever cultivator of Orchids in England, an example of 

 whose skill was depicted in The Orchid Review, vol. x. p. 201, a plant of O. 

 crispum grown in leaf mould. This illustration induced me to try the leaf 

 mould, and now, in the Gardener's Chronicle April 2, 1904, p. 212, we are told 

 by W.H.W. : "The Odontoglossums in another House were in fine con- 

 dition. The plants are grown in a mixture of polypodium fibre and 

 sphagnum moss, in fact, the majority of the plants at Westonbirt are being 

 repotted into this mixture in preference to the Belgium leaf soil." 



During the past month a collection of 300 Odontoglossums have been 

 acquired. The plants were in every conceiveable material from Belgian 

 leaf-soil, sphagnum, English peat, and Osmunda root, with various com- 

 binations of these materials. The plants having the most live roots were 

 in the Osmunda fibre, and it was noted also that the English peat and 

 moss was next best. An excellent opportunity to judge was afforded, as 

 each plant was carefully shaken out and repotted in our own way. 



I would like to make one comment on " Argus' " criticism at p. 99 :— 

 " The one point that is clear to me after a perusal of the article is that the 

 ' compost ' must be of the right mechanical composition, and that it must 

 contain the necessary food. How the food is to be got there is a matter of 

 secondary importance." Now, all will agree that the " mechanical com- 

 position," that is, a material not liable to become sour and inert, is what 

 we want, but that the matter of how to get the food to the plants is of 

 secondary import few will admit, although it is true that without the first 

 the other is unattainable, but given an open, well aerated material, and the 

 application of some plant food in solution at each watering— for all plant 

 foods must be soluble before they become available— success is assured 

 with the Epiphytal genera, such as Cattleyas and Odontoglossums. I wish 

 it were possible for some of your readers to see our seedling Cattleyas and 

 Laelias flourishing in half barrels— there were no pots large enough made. 

 How would leaf-mould serve in a mass of a bushel or more ? Yet we water 

 these plants in tubs every week with the hose. 



