April 17 ,18»n. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
815 
'Indeed, the very term “epiphytal,” which applies to so many 
Orchids, because of their growing upon parts of other plants, such 
as branches of trees, implies not very indirectly that Orchids 
•cannot be very gross and sensual feeders, or require much if any 
■solid food. An epiphyte is a plant that uses another, not for any 
qiurely parasitical purpose, as our Mistletoe does, which is rather a 
mean -way of getting a livelihood, but simply as a favourable position, 
"to which it clings by radical attachment, and from whence it can 
best secure the sufficiency of tight and air and moisture that are 
the sweet and simple necessaries c f its most temperate life. Such 
18 the epiphytal Orchid, and I have used no manner of manure to 
mine. Those, however, that are somewhat more terrestrial, and 
that seem to like some amount of vegetable debris to grow among, 
and may best be managed in pots, with leaf mould and fibry soil 
•among the compost, these seem not to despise a weak solution of 
diquid manure in their growing season. I indulge a little in this 
way such Orchids as Peristeria elata, Cymbidiums eburneum, Mas- 
•tersi, and Lowi, Thunias, and Calanthes veratrifolia and Veitchi. 
I use the clear dark liquid from the farmyard, but scarcely stain 
•clear water with it. Occasionally also, in the summer time, I 
-sprinkle the floors with a solution of this liquid. It seems to help 
the colour and substance of the leaves and growth, and this is as 
far as I have gone with manure for Orchids. 
SnAnixG. 
The light is so pure in the open country, with the glass kept 
■clean, that I find by the middle of March and until mid-September 
the sun may be too powerful for the Phalmnopsis, Stanhopeas, 
and others unable to bear bright sunshine. Anything in flower is, 
of course, kept shaded, but I have never used any “ summer 
•clouds,” or other manner of pigments to dim the glass. A dull 
day, under any sort of shading, is the perdidi diem of every Orchid 
in the house. I have tiffany or other light material in such 
“lengths that some parts of the house can be shaded longer than 
•others. The Cattleyas and Lilias get the most sun, and the 
Pandas, especially Sanderiana, have a fair amount; Aeiides, 
Angnecums, and Saccolabiums have morning and afternoon sun only. 
However, as soon as the sun shines athwart the rafters in the 
siftenoon, and for a while in the morning, the whole of the warm 
house has the chequered sunshine. 
The plants are allowed to flower where they have grown 
4ind budded, I do not try to prolong their bloom in any colder 
house. If we could have our plants in flower for as long as we 
liked, I fear we should exhaust them all, and it is some safeguard 
^against our selfishnesq a wise check upon the lust of the eye, that 
we should suffer a more timely touch than ours to fall upon the 
^ower. 
Flowers of many Orchids are of immense duration—longer it 
may be under cultivation than when growing in the open air at 
■home, and I am conscious of having made and repeated the mistake 
of leaving the flowers too long upon the plant, although beyond 
keeping them dry and out of the sun, I have not attempted to 
prolong their lives. 
Rest. 
I have not given any of the warm house Orchids what would be 
called “a cool dry rest,” partly because I have no quiescent vinery 
or such-like resting place to give them. I am too young in Orchids 
yet to have any right to speak dogmatically, and would not know- 
ingly do so ; but I am not sure that a dry cold is as truly ripening 
to growth as a moderately dry warmth. I could imagine that a 
high parched heat might cause some Orchids to shrivel in their 
Test, though I think nothing short of an oven could make ripe 
growths of Dendrobium Bensonise do that. But I should explain 
that, though the plants at rest are warm and dry, it is not in a 
parching heat. I am obliged to keep Orchids in all stages of growth 
together in a much mixed collection, where many species are 
■WEuter growers. However, I have not found that an atmospheric 
snoisture, congenial to plants in growth, is too damp and exciting 
for those at rest. I have resting shelves near the glass, with the 
pipes some feet below, and here the air is a little drier. Here 
Cattleyas and deciduous Dendrobes neither break prematurely 
into growth nor are short of flower. Here, too, the fat and fleshy 
Catasetums, Mormodes, Cycnoches, and others, alike impatient of 
moisture when at rest, sleep safe and soundly. 
Pests. 
Against all the parasitical enemies of this nature I use simply a 
mixture of softsoap and tobacco liquor in rain water, and find it 
sufficient against aphis, thrips and scale. Red spider I am never 
troubled with, and consider that the constantly damp earth floors 
and stages greatly help me in keeping up a moistness fatal to the 
existence of this pest. I have never used fumigation among 
Orchids and, by the way, may add here that I never apply the 
syringe for overhead watering of the plants, but I sponge the 
leaves when necessary. 
I know of no young Orchid growths that are the better for 
being, accidentally or otherwise, left full of water—at least with 
me, and the rafters are guarded by zinc channels to avoid the 
falling of drip. This enemy I utilise by leading the drip to fall 
upon the pipes, whereby the drops are turned to moisture “for 
the good of the house.” If a paiaffin candle or two are expended 
in being rubbed on the pipes when hot they will not rust for very 
long indeed afterwards, even if dripped upon, and assume a very 
good dark brown colour, peculiarly, if I may so say, anti-rustic. 
I use the syringe for damping walls and stages after a drying 
day, but the only Orchids I do water overhead are Dendrobium 
Falconeri and Devonianum, because if a red spider has the chance 
of a choice he will certainly not overlook such eligible foliage as 
theirs. Sometimes I have had damage done by vile monsters, 
emerging perhaps from eggs laid on stems of newly imported 
plants, and nothing avails against such abominations but hunting 
them down. I once got some huge grubs with formidable heads 
out of Chysis bractescens, and would have liked to know what they 
would have been eventually, but I fear we cannot afford to take 
any interest in clearing up these mysteries beyond that of clearing 
them out. 
Potting. 
I need not say much on this point of culture, because so much 
has been said, and it is well known that the two great errors in pot¬ 
ting or replanting Orchids lie in using too much materi-al other 
