1868. ] 
CALANTHE YESTITA. 
130 
we thus secure the greatest amount of the fostering agencies of heat and 
moisture to push on the growth of our plants. 
Now by deep cultivation, with moderate manuring, watering may 
almost be reduced to a minimum. Watering unless well done, does more 
harm than good. Very few men can water plants properly, either in pots 
or the open ground; it is, I consider, the most difficult part of a gardener’s 
business to water plants well. If all the extra labour required for watering, 
were devoted to stirring and deep digging, our plants would give more 
flowers, at less trouble, and of better quality. 
Sudbrooke Holme. Gr. McBey. 
CALANTHE YESTITA. 
iMONG- the many beautiful-flowering plants grown for decorative pur¬ 
poses at the present day, there are few, if any, that rank higher as 
•jy being really useful and effective for late autumn and winter deco- 
^ ration, whether as pot plants or as cut flowers, than Calanthe vestitci 
and its varieties. I refer to the deciduous kinds of Calanthe only, 
including C. Veitchii a beautiful .mule raised at the Messrs. Yeitcli’s estab¬ 
lishment. Their flowering season is from the beginning of November to the 
end of January, and may be made of much longer duration. There is only 
one fault that can be urged against them—that is, they lose their foliage 
about the time they commence to unfold their singularly elegant and showy 
flowers. As cut flowers they are unrivalled. Take, for instance, a spike 
of each of the varieties enumerated below, put them in a flower glass in 
water with Fern fronds, and you have a bouquet at once graceful and 
beautiful, while each individual flower will be as fresh and perfect in four 
weeks’ time as on the day when it was cut from the plant. 
Calanthe vestita is a terrestrial Orchid, and is found in the mountain 
regions of Moulmein, Java, and Burmah. It is of the easiest possible 
culture, and is, moreover, very free in producing its long gracefully-pendent 
flower spikes, usually two and three from each pseudobulb. These flower 
spikes are thrown up from the base of the bulbs some weeks before they 
lose their foliage., Let no amateur despair of cultivating and flowering 
these plants simply because they belong to the family of Orchids —a reason 
I have heard assigned for not attempting their culture. Any one having a 
couple of vineries or moderately heated plant stove, has the first essential 
for growing Calanthes successfully. These deciduous Calanthes require 
both a diurnal and an annual rest; during the latter rest they require to 
be kept dry. About the beginning of March, or later, according to the 
length of time they have been at rest, they commence to gro-w from the 
base of the bulb, and this is the time to commence their cultivation by 
repotting them. I grow them in different sized pots to suit the various 
