256 
IHK ORCHID WORLD. 
[Auo;uSt, I9I3. 
THE COMMENCEMENT OF COOL-HOUSE TREATMENT, 
AUGUST 25th, iSOj, just fifty years 
ago, marked the real commencement 
of the cool-house treatment in Orchid 
culture. It was on this day that James 
Bateman, of Biddulph Grange, read before 
the Floral Committee of the Royal Horti- 
cultural Society a Paper on the principles of 
cool-house treatment for Orchids, and to 
prove the success of his methods he exhibited 
a beautiful plant of Epidendrum vitellinum, 
to which a Special Certificate was awarded. 
Before giving particulars of Bateman's 
notes, it will be well to state that for many 
X'cars after Orchids were first introduced into 
England the only atmosphere thought 
suitable to their culture was a hot, steamy 
and unventilated stove-house. Even when 
the celebrated John Lindley was appointed 
secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society, 
an attempt was made by the Society to 
cultivate Orchids in a specially prepared 
house. The results were at first unsuccessful ; 
the plants were lost as quickly as they were 
received. Lindley, however, continued his 
experiments, and eventually obtained some 
measure of success with those plants suitable 
to high temperature and excessive humidity. 
This treatment remained in vogue for a long 
period. It is only fair to Lindley to remark 
that when correct details of the habitats of 
certain Orchids came to hand he always did 
his utmost to advise his friends. In 1835, he 
wrote : " If a great majority of epiphytal 
Orchids swarm in damp tropical forests, there 
is a considerable minority which live in an 
entirely different climate." 
Joseph Cooper, gardener to Earl Fitz- 
william at Wentworth, must have been a man 
of considerable intelligence, for when Sir 
William Hooker visited the place in 1835 he 
remarked : " I must confess that the sight of 
this collection, whether the vigorous growth 
and beauty of the foliage, or the number of 
splendid specimens blooming at the same 
time, be considered, far exceeded my warmest 
anticipations." Cooper's method consisted 
of a lower temperature and the admission of 
fresh air into the house. 
In 1838 Sir Joseph Paxton also achieved 
no small measure of success by maintaining 
a purer atmosphere. At the same time. 
Lindley was much startled by these new- 
conditions of culture, and we find him writing 
as follows : " The success with which 
epiphytes are cultivated by Paxton is won- 
derful, and the climate in which this is 
effected, instead of being so hot and damp 
that the plants can only be seen with as 
much peril as if one had to visit them in an 
Indian jungle, is as mild and delightful as 
that of Madeira." 
From this time onwards we can find a 
few, but only a very few, growers who 
attempted the cool-house ideas. Among 
these was Donald Beaton, who for a few 
years cultivated Mr. Harris's plants at Kings- 
bury. The means for spreading knowledge 
in these early days were few and far between, 
so much so that the general community of 
Orchid amateurs reaped little benefit from 
these isolated methods of success. It 
remained for the Royal Horticultural Society 
to give to the horticultural world the full 
particulars of James Bateman's method, which 
may reasonably be said to have inaugurated 
the cool-house treatment which proves such 
a welcome addition to our Orchid collections 
of the present day. 
The following is a report of the Paper read 
by James Bateman, August 25th, 1863. 
" I have much pleasure in forwarding for 
exhibition before the Floral Committee the 
specimen of Epidendrum vitellinum that 
accompanies this Paper, and which I have 
little doubt the Committee will agree with 
me in regarding as eminently beautiful. It 
is not, however, with a view to the merits 
of the plant as an attractive object that I 
now wish to direct attention to it, but rather 
in so far as it may be taken as an illustration 
of the success which has attended the adapta- 
tion of the principle of cool treatment in 
dealing with Orchids from cool countries. 
" My first plants of the species were 
received from Oaxaca, nearly thirty years ago, 
but although m excellent condition at the 
