2X8 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



[July, 1915- 



Masdevallia ignea. 



MasdevALLIA ignea. — Although Masde- 

 vaUias were great favourites in days gone by, 

 they rarely receive much attention in the more 

 recently formed collections. This is rather a 

 pity, for many of them produce brightly 

 coloured flowers, which stand well up above 

 the foliage and last some time in perfection. 

 This season a remarkable display of M. ignea 

 has been produced in the collection of Mr. 

 H. S. Goodson, Fairlawn, Putney, where some 

 70 healthy plants have each carried about 

 10 flowers of bright cinnabar-red colour. 

 This fine show of about 700 flowers is all the 

 more remarkable when it is considered that 

 this collection is within five miles of Charing 

 Cross. The present stock of M. ignea has 

 been produced by propagating a few plants 

 obtained some six years ago. 



U SJs 



Seventy Years Ago. — The followmg 

 interesting note, extracted from the Gardeners 

 Chronicle, June 14th, 1845, explains an 

 ingenious method of heating an Orchid house 

 in Messrs. Henderson's nursery at Pine-Apple 

 Place: — "It is a span-roofed structure, about 

 35 feet in length, and nearly 25 feet in width, 

 and is heated by means of hot water flowing 

 in iron tanks put up by Messrs. Burbidge and 

 Healy. These have been in operation for 



some time, and are found to work well, 

 notwithstanding that the boiler is fixed under 

 some disadvantage from the circumstance of 

 a drain running immediaely under it, which 

 prevented it from being properly set. The 

 tanks, passing round the house below the 

 stage between the pathway and the glass, 

 have small openings on the top for the escape 

 of steam, immediately from the surface of the 

 water. These can be kept open or shut, thus 

 affording either moist or dry heat as required. 

 The bed in the centre of the house is also 

 heated by means of hot water from the same 

 boiler flowing in open tanks, the vapour from 

 which enters the house through a number of 

 finely perforated zinc plates which are level 

 with the surface of the bed." 



II gjE ^ 



Staging. — I read with interest the article 

 on staging which appeared in the June issue. 

 In the Fairlawn collection we have now 

 entirely removed the old-fashioned coke and 

 cinder ash under-staging, and in its place 

 employ only a single stage of battens. Of 

 course, we do not allow the heat from the 

 hot-water pipes to rush up directly on to the 

 plants, which would probably be worse than 

 the old method, but some few inches above 

 the pipes we fix a length of cocoanut matting, 

 which is kept constantly moist. This material 

 is of fairly thick nature, and supported by 

 three strands of galvanised wire, reaching 

 from one end of the house to the other, as 

 well as wire netting in order to keep it nice 

 and level. About every eight feet small iron 

 brackets are erected as additional supports. 

 It is surprising how long this matting continues 

 to give off moisture when once it has been 

 thoroughly saturated with water, which is 

 done every morning and night. The space 

 between the matting and the plants is about 

 one foot, the distance varying slightly as the 

 position of the pipes allows, but as much 

 space as possible is secured. This method 

 allows a free circulation of air and tends to 

 keep the atmosphere of the house in a sweet 

 condition. Moreover, when we used the coke 

 and cinder-ash stage, as well as leaves on the 

 ground, we were never free from injurious 



