6 
THE ORCHID ACE JS OE THE 
last, particular care being had that they are not placed where 
draughts of cold air may affect them, and that they do not suffer 
from want of water. 
The above may be regarded as the outlines of the management 
through the most particular period of the year, and will bring 
the plants through the first stage of their advance; there are, 
however, a few which will require some little difference in their 
treatment from the body of the collection, which may be 
accounted for by peculiarities in their general character, the force 
of habit as induced by long-continued management, or if recent 
introductions by variations in the altitude of their native posi¬ 
tions and other causes; but a little experience will soon show 
that it amounts to little more than a slight change in tempe¬ 
rature, which may be provided by removal to the warm or cooler 
end of the house. Thus, for instance, the very splendid species 
from which our illustration is taken, Odontoglossum Grande, 
refuses to display its flowers if continued in the elevated tempe¬ 
rature that would be beneficial to the majority of the collection, 
but requires to be taken to a cooler place soon after it has begun 
to grow,, that it may have the opportunity of forming the flower 
buds which appear. When the pseudo-bulbs are about half 
grown, a fortnight or three weeks in the greenhouse at this period 
will invariably ensure their production upon healthy vigorous 
specimens, and as soon as they are discoverable in the sheath¬ 
ing leaves, the plant may he taken back to the stove, when the 
blossoms will advance with the new growths, and expand about 
the time the latter are completed. Some Oncidiums and their 
allies, the Brassias, are very apt to protrude a second shoot even 
before they have completely matured the first, to the certain pre¬ 
vention of their blooming. A low temperature, with little or no 
water, is the best remedy, and where the plants are known to be 
shy bloomers, should always be adopted about the period the 
embryo buds are or ought to be forming. 
From April to July the major part of the collection will be in 
bloom, and the summer treatment should prevail; air may be 
freely admitted nearly every day, and if in quantity sufficient to 
agitate the plants, so much the better, providing the maximum 
temperature is maintained, and an extra supply of moisture at 
night is made available to the plants, in order to counteract the 
