830 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
layer of sphagnum moss on the top to keep the soil from choking 
the drainage. If the water cannot pass away quickly, the plants 
will soon show an unhealthy appearance, the tips of the leaves 
damping off. When this is seen they should be shaken out 
forthwith and replaced with clean potting material, for if left 
any length of time the tubers will decay. 
The Potting Compost 
should consist of three parts spongy peat with bracken fern 
roots in it, such as is obtained from any rough moorland. It 
should be pulled into small pieces, with a little turfy loam added 
with plenty of fibre in it, and a little decomposed cow manure 
which has been thoroughly baked to kill all insect life. These 
ingredients should be passed through a half-inch sieve to take the 
small out, using only that which does not go through, and putting 
among it plenty of coarse sand, lumps of sandstone and charcoal, 
and mixing all well together. 
Carefully knock the plants out of their pots, damaging the 
roots as little as possible. Some growers pot them quite flat, 
and I have tried it myself, but I find that by elevating them a 
little above the pot’s rim they seem to do much better, and are 
not so liable to damp off at the collar, the water leaving them 
more quickly. A thin wooden label is very useful in working the 
new soil round the plant, finishing off with a little sphagnum 
and small pieces of sandstone. 
After potting take back to the winter quarters, giving them a 
good watering with tepid water through a fine rose; they will not 
then require any more for several days, only to be kept moist by 
the syringe. The one I use is Stotts’s patent, which discharges 
water almost like dew falling on them. They will require 
watering at the roots as well if they appear to be dry, which 
is ascertained by the sphagnum turning a light colour. Tapping 
the pots with the knuckles, as is done with other plants, is 
no use, for having extra drainage and being potted rather 
lightly they would sound hollow, perhaps, when quite saturated. 
When the sun is at all hot and shining on them they will 
require shading. Roller blinds are the best: they can be drawn up 
when it is at all dull or cloudy. Disas like to be near the 
glass, and to receive abundance of light at all times. 
About February the roots will be working in the new com- 
