3° 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



[Xovember, 191 5. 



winter when air cannot be admitted for 

 some hours even to hot-growing Orchids. 

 Personally, I think the damping down system 

 is unsuited to these plants. We who are born 

 here find it quite easy to bear a high degree 

 of heat, and some of us prosaically continue 

 our work in the open air to discover next day 

 that the tliermometer registered 140° F. m 

 the sun. But let the air become moist and we 

 are exhausted. This is the experience of 

 friends m India who find 80° F. unbearable 

 there, though they think nothing of a higher 

 degree m Tasmania. 



I once asked an experienced Orchidist in 

 England what he would do with cool-house 

 Orchids when the thermometer registered 

 K)S° F. in the shade at 8 a.m. He replied : 

 " I should give it up." Nevertheless, we 

 manage to grow some of these plants, and are 

 consequently proud when Odontoglossum 

 Rossii or O. pulchellum favours us with a 

 good spike. In a small house I have O. 

 grande, O. Ccrvantesii, O. hastilabium, 

 Oncidium Forbesii, O. phymatochilum, 

 Lycaste Skinneri, Colax jugosus, Sophronitis 

 grandiflora, Maxillaria Harrisonia?, Bletia 

 hyacinthina, Dendrobium infundibulum, D. 

 japonicum, D. Jamesianum, Coelogyne 

 cnstata and other species of the genus, 

 Cymbidium eburneum and others, a Masde- 

 vallia, and one jilant each of Vanda Amesiana, 

 V. Kimballiana, Angr^ecum falcatum, brides 

 maculosum and Cattleya citrina, all in good 

 health. 



A Sobralia macrantha is fully 6 feet high 

 above the tub in which it is growing ; a Vanda 

 Batemani is a beautiful well-leaved plant 

 2 feet () inches high, and 3 feet 3 inches 

 across ; while there are two fine spikes of 

 bloom on a large Angrascum eburneum. 

 When I want to give a Vanda extra water I 

 put it in a tub of water in the open air for an 

 hour or so, let the pot dram, and put it back 

 on the shelf in the house. Phaleenopses are 

 very little grown here ; they are ver)' 

 unhealthy when they arrive from Singapore, 

 or elsewhere, and they are sent at the season 

 of export from India and have immediately to 

 face another winter, which quite often 

 prevents their living. 



1 do not find h\-brid Orchids so easy to 

 cultivate as the writers of Enghsh books 

 suppose. A Laslio-Cattleya presented to me 

 some years ago has never expanded a bloom, 

 though two or three sheaths have appeared ; 

 an Odontoglossum hybrid is far less health}' 

 looking than the Odontoglossum species by 

 its side. Cypripedium Fairrieanum blooms 

 with me each year. C niveum and its allies 

 grow well, but have rarely bloomed ; while a 

 fair number of other Cypripediums are m fine 

 condition. Vanda teres grows well, but its 

 varieties aurora, Andersoni, as well as Vanda 

 Miss Joachim do not respond to my treatment 

 at all generously. 



Oncidiums in several varieties have liloomed 

 here, O. sarcodes being handsome ; I)ut 

 Miltonias do not thrive with me, and the two 

 I have are certainly not " sjjecimens," unless it 

 is of " how not to do it." Of Dendrobiums 

 there are nobile, densiflorum, supcrbum, 

 thyrsiflorum, Dalhousieanum, chrysotoxum, 

 primulinum, Phaleenopsis Schroderianum, and 

 others, notably moschatum, whicli is a tall 

 plant with good leaves and which may be 

 relied upon to bloom each year. — Julia A. 

 Si lie key, Unlcy Park, SoiitJi Australia. 



Orchid Sale in i 887. — That many of our 

 popular Orchids were at one time extremely 

 valuable is proved by the following prices 

 realised at a sale of duplicates from the 

 collection of Mr. Lee, of Leatherhead, 

 May 3rd and 4th, 1887. Messrs. Protheroe 

 and Morris were the auctioneers. Saccolabium 

 Harrisonianum, £\(:>2 15s.; Alaxillaria 

 Sanderiana, ^18 i8s.; Cymbidium Lowianum, 

 £2\ \ Cattleya Skinneri alba, £^}, 12s.; C. 

 Skinneri oculata, L"]^ lOs. ; C. labiata, 

 i^37 ]6s. ; C. Trianae Leeana, £\<^)C) los. ; 

 L^lio-Cattleya elegans, ^^42 ; Masdevallia 

 Denisoniana, ^^32 iis. ; M. Harr\-ana rugosa, 

 ;^^48 6s. ; Cypripedium Stonei platytaenium, 

 ^^^325 los. ; Dendrobium Phalaenopsis, 

 £^^2 lOs. ; Cymbidium giganteum, ^^23 ; 

 Laelio-Cattleya elegans, £'31 los. ; L.-C. 

 exoniensis, £\o^\ L.-C. bella, ^^"189; 

 Angraecum caudatum, £},y i6s. ; and 

 Saccolabium Heathi, £1^^ los. 



