﻿THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



[October, 1904. 



known of these. Wire baskets should be very stoutly made, those patterns 

 having a wide top and narrowing below being most suitable, as they allow a 

 free passage for the flower spikes. Large lumps of burnt clay, or ballast, as 

 it is termed, is superior to crocks for laying in bottom of these, especially 

 for baskets having a large mesh, as, owing to their size, they cannot slip 

 through, while the make-up is, of course, lighter when these are used. 



Sphagnum moss enters more largely than peat into the compost for 

 basket plants. It is more to the liking of delicate rooting plants, and has 

 no earthy particles to silt through and litter up the paths. In suspending 

 the baskets these should never depend from eves screwed into the rafters; 

 there should always be a rod provided running from end to end of the 

 house. This prevents drip from condensed moisture running into the 

 plants. Again they should always be hung over the paths, never over other 

 plants, or when they are watered the drip will injure the latter.— H. R. R. 

 in Journal of Horticulture.. 



ONCIDIUM TIGRINUM UNGUICULATUM. 



At a meeting of the Newport Horticultural Society in February last Mr. 

 George Melvin, gardener to Colonel Charles Pfaff, South Framingham, 

 Mass., exhibited a superb specimen of Oncidium tigrinum unguiculatum 

 grown in a 9-inch pan. The plant had three spikes each over five feet 

 long, these spikes carrying one hundred and fifty flowers. If this plant 

 can be taken as an example of what can be done with this variety of 

 Oncidium it certainly should find a place in every collection of Orchids. 

 This variety is somewhat smaller in flower than tigrinum ; in colour it is 

 pale green speckled with crimson, lip clear yellow, a native of Mexico. 

 Mr. Melvin was awarded the society's silver medal, and by vote of the 

 society the plant was photographed, one of which is to be hung in the hall 

 where the society meets. This plant was awarded the silver medal on 

 this occasion, and received the silver medal of the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society last year. — American Gardening, 1904, p. 605, with a 

 figure showing part of an inflorescence. 



DENDROBIUM FORMOSUM GIGANTEUM. 



Where there are facilities for fruit forcing, especially a Fig house where 

 the Figs are grown in pots, and the roof is screened with little or no 

 shading whatever, here, in the hot humid atmosphere during the hottest 

 months of the year, the Dendrobiums make their growth far more satis- 

 factorily than is found to be the case in the most up-to-date erected Orchid 

 house. During the resting season cooler and drier conditions must be given. 



