HOW TO POPULARISE ORCHID-GROWING. 



107 



which told me of the countries where these plants came from, I 

 excavated a space under a north wall to a depth of eighteen 

 inches, and bricked and cemented the bottom and sides, so that 

 it became watertight. Over this I placed a three-light frame, 

 facing also to the north, and then placed my poor invalid Orchids 

 on inverted pots standing in the water covering the bottom. This 

 was in the end of June, when the "nights were just getting mild 

 and genial in the North of England, where the garden is situated. 



Before I go further I think I should explain what made me 

 try this, as I had heard, of course, of Orchids being placed in 

 cold frames during the summer ; and yet I never found anyone 

 who seemed very successful in consequence of so doing. These 

 Orchids we call cool Orchids grow at high elevations on mountains 

 under the Equator, where there is neither any summer nor any 

 winter season such as we have in northern latitudes ; conse- 

 quently they neither have summer heat nor winter cold, and in 

 the close, damp woods where many of them thrive the atmo- 

 sphere is always moist. The light is constant all the year round ; 

 there are no short, dark days, and no fierce, drying sunshine or 

 winds to blast them ; yet the nights there are always cool, and 

 the intensity of the light such, and so constant, that the shade 

 is tempered to a degree we have little idea of. It seemed to me 

 probable, then, that if I could manage to reproduce their natural 

 condition of moisture, air, and light sufficiently perfectly in 

 summer they might endure our dark winter days without much 

 loss of strength. 



With this idea, then, I put my Orchids into this cold frame 

 facing north, and with an inch or two of water covering the 

 bottom. On every still, mild night the lights were entirely 

 drawn off, so that the plants should get all the dew and cool 

 night air, and every drop of rain that fell. On windy, dry nights 

 the frame was closed. During the day it was aired but slightly 

 and shaded rather heavily, to prevent the sun raising the tem- 

 perature much ; but whenever it rained the lights were always 

 drawn off entirely. By this means the plants in a wet summer 

 never required any watering beyond that they received as dew 

 and rain ; they were cool and moist both by day and night, and 

 yet had abundance of air, unless a high and drying wind pre- 

 vailed ; and I watched the result of my little experiment with 

 much interest. 



