16 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[JANUAUY, 
last ten years. They are just large enough to fill a G-in. pot, and are generally 
sent to this country at the latter end of September and throughout October. 
They should then be potted in sandy loam and well-rotted manure, three parts 
of the former to one of the latter, and once watered to consolidate the soil, and 
then put away out-of-doors on a coal-asli bed, to prevent worms entering the soil, 
the pots being covered with the same material. 
When required for forcing, they should be placed in a temperature of from 
50° to 55°, and after they show flower the heat may be increased to 60° ; but if 
the time of flowering be not a consideration, the lower temperature would be 
preferable ; and as the temperature of the conservatory would be about 45°, the 
plants would not suffer from the change, provided they were preserved from 
cold draughts. The flowers will keep good for two or three weeks. 
After the flowering period, if the plants are removed to a greenhouse or pit, 
and the growth of their foliage is encouraged by an application of manure-water 
occasionally, the buds will swell out, and the plants will only require shifting in 
the autumn to a pot one size larger, and putting away in the same manner as 
recommended at the commencement of this paper, to be ready for forcing the 
following season when required. With care the forcing may be repeated success¬ 
fully for several years.— Gr. Eyles, South Kensington. 
COOL ORCHIDS. 
THINK it will be granted, that at any period of the year Orchids have an 
attraction and fascination peculiarly their own. In the London season, this 
can be easily perceived, by the intense admiration they command at our 
great horticultural exhibitions. In a word, they are universally acknow¬ 
ledged to be the aristocracy of plants. 
But there are scores of lovely gems never seen at these great gatherings, from 
the fact of their blooming period being either earlier or later than the exhibition 
season ; and by far the larger proportion of these is composed of cool orchids. I 
can conceive nothing more interesting during the whole winter months than a 
w r ell-managed collection. The constant succession of new forms of beauty and of 
colouring, from the gorgeous Sophronitis to the delicate Lodia and humble Pleione , 
combined with the long duration of many, give them an interest unequalled by 
any other class of plants. 
From the many and great importations of late years, most of the showiest 
and least impatient of cultivation can be procured for a few shillings, in fact, for 
less than the cost of a new Pelargonium, and from our present knowledge of 
their native habitats, such as elevation and climate, the supposed difficulty of 
cultivation has vanished. 
The absolute necessity for cool treatment is by no means new to us. Lyons 
insisted upon it a quarter of a century ago. But it received its great impetus 
from what Reichenbacli facetiously terms Mr. Bateman’s u Odontoglossomania,” 
