SYRINGING AND DAMPING. 



59 



may result from watering when this is not required. Always use the water at the 

 same temperature as that of the house, or a little warmer ; cold water applied to a 

 plant in a warm house is bound to occasion a check to the roots. Bain-water is in all 

 cases best for orchids ; but if hard water must perforce be used, it is a good plan to let it 

 stand in a tank exposed to the sun if possible. 



Sykinging. 



Much that has been advanced respecting root moisture applies with equal force to 

 sprinkling the plants through a syringe. This should never be practised in winter, and 

 only when the weather is bright during the summer. The practice has been a good 

 deal decried, some cultivators going so far as to do without it entirely ; but not to use 

 the syringe judiciously is to do away with one of the most useful cultural aids. 



For cool-house orchids generally, nothing is so refreshing during the summer as a 

 light dewing several times daily. It keeps insects in check, and creates a con- 

 genial atmosphere. For warm-house orchids, too, on bright sunny days at closing 

 time light syringings reduce evaporation from the foliage to a minimum, and freshen 

 the plants after an enervating day. The water must be applied in the form of spray, 

 a heavy douche being quite wrong, and doing more harm than good. Spraying is done 

 by keeping the first finger of the left hand over the nozzle of the syringe. Even this 

 form of applying moisture is injurious when carried to an extreme extent, and should 

 not be practised with phaleenopsis or any of the orchids grown for the beauty of their 

 foliage, as ansectochilus and others. Cattleyas and lselias are impatient of much 

 overhead moisture, and especially when they are at that stage of growth when the 

 young leaf forms a cup that holds water, i.e. when about half- grown. 



The syringe is very useful in keeping up the requisite amount of moisture in the 

 atmosphere, and should be freely plied about the pots, stages, and floors during hot 

 weather. From May until August it is impossible to keep the atmosphere too moist 

 for orchids ; indeed, if the houses are properly ventilated the cultivator must be con- 

 tinually " damping down," as it is termed. Later, when the days are short, and nights 

 long, less atmospheric moisture is needed; but it is a well-known fact among orchidists 

 that as a general rule orchids, both summer and winter, of evergreen or deciduous 

 kinds, are overdone with root moisture, but not sufficiently watered through the atmo- 

 sphere. The most care is needed in the vicinity of large towns, and especially the 

 Metropolis, where the sulphurous atmosphere descends upon the houses in the form of 



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