58 
ORCHIDACEOUS HOUSE. 
according to the collection intended to be cul- 
tivated. The stages, or benches, for the 
plants should be of slate, resting upon neat 
iron columns at intervals ; and underneath 
the stages, hot-water tanks for heating (a) 
should be constructed : these tanks should be 
furnished with movable covers, so as to ex- 
clude or admit steam at pleasure. The roof 
is supported by a row of iron columns in the 
centre ; along the roof sashes, some slight 
iron rods are fixed, and by means of moveable 
hooks of different lengths, those plants which 
require suspending, are fixed so as to be 
brought to the position best suited for inspect- 
ing them. The pathway may be of stone ; or 
gravel is better, if furnished with an open 
wooden platform to walk on. If it is pre- 
erred, the central stage may have a portion 
more elevated, for the purpose of displaying 
the plants ; but this is usually done by setting 
them, if necessary, on an inverted pot, of suf- 
ficient height to elevate them as much as may 
be necessary, and this is more convenient than 
having any portion permanently raised. In 
the sketch some of the tanks or gutters are 
shown with the covers on, and others with 
them removed, but they are all made in the 
same way, and may be kept on or taken off at 
pleasure. The pillars and supports to the 
roof may be decorated by climbing plants, of 
which some of the Passifloras, Thunbergias, 
and Ipcemeas, are particularly appropriate. 
Atmosphere. — When the whole collection 
is grown in one house, a mean temperature of 
from 63 to 68 degs. must be kept up ; but 
where there are two houses, the warmest may 
be kept at 70 degs. and the coolest at 60 degs., 
allowing four or five degrees more in very 
fine weather, and a few degrees less if it is 
dull and cloudy. At night it should always 
be from six to eight degrees lower than by 
day. The moisture of the air must be pro- 
portioned to the heat, but an increase of tem- 
perature should always at this season be 
accompanied by more moisture. Very little, 
if any, air need be admitted. 
Potting and renewing the soil. — When the 
plants indicate signs of growth, towards the end 
of the month, they are to be re-potted, or, if in 
baskets or on blocks, the materials about the 
roots should be examined, or renewed, if neces- 
sary. Previously to being potted, the plants 
should not receive any water for some days. 
On the subject of potting, Mr. Lyons remarks : 
" Probably the most material point to be at- 
tended to in potting, is, that the pots should be 
well drained. This may be effected by filling 
the pots two-thirds with potsherds or char- 
coal ; or by inverting a smaller pot inside, and 
filling it round with cinders or charcoal. This 
I consider best, as being the lightest. A per- 
fect system of drainage is absolutely necessary, 
for, although most — I may say all the speeies — 
delight in great moisture at certain periods of 
the year, still they will not thrive if the water 
is suffered to remain or be- 
come stagnant about their 
roots ; it must therefore 
have a free passage to run 
off through the pots. In 
potting, the plant must not 
be placed deep in the pots ; 
it should be kept above the 
rim, and on the surface of the 
material on which it is to 
grow. It may either be tied to a stick made fast 
in the pots, or fastened down with pegs, to pre- 
vent its falling or being easily disturbed : 
place the pieces of turfy peat so that the roots 
may easily run through them, and in a short 
time the. plant will be firm, as it throws out 
its roots very quickly." Somewhat shallow 
and wide pots are most suitable for orchida- 
ceous plants. Some only of these plants are 
properly grown in pots, others 
require to be placed in loose, 
open baskets, or on blocks or 
billets of wood. The baskets 
may be of any form which 
the fancy of the owner may 
suggest ; that here represented 
is an elegant and useful form. 
The manner of placing the 
plants in the baskets is similar to that of pot- 
ting them, except that so many potsherds are 
not required ; neither is there any necessity to 
elevate the plants so much, though in this 
case the base of the stem is not to be placed 
beneath the surface. The blocks or billets, to 
which some species require to be attached, 
may be of any form, and 
should be adapted in size 
to the strength and size 
of the plants, or the par- 
ticular nature of the kind. 
Blocks of any hard wood, 
charred, are very suitable 
for the purpose ; and many 
T"^5§* cultivators esteem blocks 
of the wood of the cork- 
tree, with the bark attached. A pair of cocoa- 
nut husks, loosely fastened together, make a 
convenient receptaclefor some kinds; and some 
of the bivalve shells look very handsome when 
so used. When the plants are placed on the 
blocks, they should have a little sphagnum 
moss, out moderately fine, laid beneath them, 
and some more added to cover the roots ; the 
moss and plants are then to be secured to the 
block, by means of zinc or lead wire, fastened 
to copper tacks, driven into the blocks. Dif- 
ferent kinds of soil are preferred for the plants 
in pots and in baskets, by different growers: 
and it ma\ r at once be observed that any of 
