24 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 9 
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I 
Easily grown, and a really fine plant, continuing to 
bloom for several weeks. 21 s. 
S. sessilis (Stemless S.); Peru. Flowers pinkish- 
rose, with the lip of a deeper colour. They are of a very 
short duration. 21s. 
Culture. —We have already, under the head “ Plants 
Requiring Peculiar Culture,” treated upon the way to 
grow Sobralias, but as that is sometime since, we will 
briefly recapitulate. 
Soil. —These plants are found growing upon little hil¬ 
locks on marshy grounds, the soil strong, approaching to 
clay. During the rainy season they grow freely; but 
when the dry season sets in, they have a comparative rest. 
These circumstances point out the treatment we ought to 
give them in our stoves. The soil we grow them in at 
Pine-apple Place, is the kind so well known as the Nor¬ 
wood loam. The plants arc put in rather large pots, and 
from April to September they are most liberally sup¬ 
plied with water. After the latter month, they are kept 
moderately dry; through the winter we never put 
them in the orchid-house. They are kept constantly in 
a common stove, the heat of which never exceeds 75° in 
summer, and often falls down to 45° in winter, yet the 
plants thrive well, and llower beautifully, proving that 
they require a very simple treatment, and will grow and 
flower well in a common stove, amongst other, compara¬ 
tively speaking, hardy exotics. 
Stenia pallida (Pale S.) ; Demarara.—Sepals and 
petals pale yellow, the lip has a tinge of pink on it; 
flowers large for the size of the plant; pseudo-bulbs 
very small, and congregate together in a close mass; 
leaves about three inches long, and of a pale sea-green 
colour. A neat, pretty plant, growing in small compass, 
and very manageable. 21s. 
Culture: Soil. —Rough peat, with the finer particles 
beaten and sifted out of it, and then mixed with small 
broken potsherds and charcoal, will suit it admirably. 
In potting, use plenty of drainage; in fact, half fill the 
pot with it, then lay upon the drainage a thin layer of 
moss, and upon that pack some of the compost pretty 
closely, then take the plant, shake off all the old soil, 
cleanse it from dirt, insects, dead leaves, and roots, by 
washing witli a sponge and a small brush the leaves, 
and cutting off the dead leaves and pseudo-bulbs with 
a sharp knife, just at the point between the dead and 
the living parts. When this is perfectly well done, hold 
the plant over the pot, in the centre, and fill in round it 
the compost, packing it closely and firmly. It is a mis¬ 
taken notion that orchids require the stuff about their 
roots to be loose and open. Whoever will take the 
trouble to examine the state of the compost in the pots 
of the fine specimens exhibited at Chiswick, and the 
Park, will find the compost is a compact close mass, 
porous it is true, but yet so firm, that if turned out 
of the pot, it would cling together in a mass. To 
return to the potting—as soon as the pot is filled 
level witli the rim, and packed close, keep the plant 
still a little higher in the centre, and pack some nice 
pieces of the compost round it, leaving it standing upon 
a small elevated cone in the centre. Then give a water¬ 
ing with a syringe, rather forcibly, which will still moro 
fix the soil firmly round the plant. Then place it in the 
warmest part of the orchid-house, and give a liberal 
treatment with both heat and water. If the rest has 
been properly managed, the potting season will be in 
tlio spring, the sun will then be advancing into power, 
and this Stenia will require, with the rest of the tribe, 
protection from his midday rays. The heat it requires 
is rather high to assimilate with that of its native 
country. Growing season, 80° to 85° by day, allowing 
it to fall in the night 10 or 15 degrees; resting season, 
05° by day, down to 55° by night. Water. —As this is 
a plant almost without pseudo-bulbs, it will not bear to 
be kept quite dry at any season, but when growing, 
should have a larger, much larger, supply than when in 
a comparative state of rest during the winter months. 
The air of the house should also be much drier in winter, 
or the leaves will damp off, especially the younger ones. 
In winter wc place it much nearer the glass, on a high 
shelf. This situation suits it well, and it preserves its 
leaves in a perfect good state of health through that 
dreary season. T. Appleby. 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
MR. GLENNY ON FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
Hollyhocks (in a flat box), too small and too loose, 
and, moreover, too thin to be useful. 
Keyne’s White Dahlia, very promising indeed; we 
must see it again. If it is the season of proving, per¬ 
haps it can be shown at the Slough meeting. 
Dahlias (A.J.).— We cannot see any thing in either 
of the Dahlias to make them worth growing. There has 
been no meeting as last year; the largest was at Shackle- 
well; but there has been none, and will be none, like 
that at the Grecian Saloon last year. (B. D.). —The 
yellow is not so good as Standard; the scarlet not so 
good as Gem. The fancy one is no use whatever. Look 
to the back numbers of The Cottage Gardener for 
what we have said. Once is enough, except as a resume 
of the season. ( B. B., Colchester). —No use ; not one 
good one. It is no use to say what points are deficient 
where there is not a good one. ( Whale. Kintbury). — 
Mrs. Wentworth, one of those light flowers which have 
a coloured tip, or edge, shaded down into white; is a 
large flower, with a good circular outline, fine noble face, 
centre firm and symmetrical, though a little sunk; a 
decided acquisition. Mr. Neville, bronzy-purple, tole¬ 
rably double, symmetrical, and compact; eye a little 
sunk; colour new, if not brilliant. The yellow one is a 
splendid colour, but, in its present state, too much sunk 
in the eye to be popular. We may see blooms more 
advanced, perhaps, when this fault is lessened. (M. G., 
Hirjhcross). — Scarlet King, a round, symmetrical, full- 
sized scarlet flower, of excellent form among the cupped 
varieties, the eye so little sunk, that we anticipate seeing 
it occasionally quite up to the surface; it is the best form, 
and an acquisition, although we abound in reds. ( H .).— 
No. 1, a yellow-white, of excellent form, well up on the 
face, somewhat ribbed, and quite new, because there is a 
brightness, instead of a dullness, in the yellow shade. 
Saracen, a dark, fancy variety, of good general form for 
its class, the tips are pinky-white, and the llower looks 
as if it would bear growing; the eye better than average. 
Flower of the Day, one of the fancy-shaped kinds ; the 
ground is yellow and white, the stripes reddish ; too flat 
on the face. 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS CULTURE. 
tile tulip —{continued from page 10). 
In our first essay on the culture of this noble flower 
we proposed dividing the subject into five parts, namely, 
Situation, Draining, Manure and Soil, Planting, and 
Shelter. In writing on these heads we found it neces¬ 
sary to alter the arrangement a little, because the per¬ 
manent shelter we described in the last number ought j 
to be erected previously to planting the roots ; at least, 
it would be wise to do so, for carpenters are not in 
general careful where they tread, and might set a heavy 
foot upon a Louis X VI., or a Fanny Kemble, or any other j 
dear sort, and so injure it as to quash all hopo of its | 
producing a fine flower fit to win a premier prize the 
next year. And yet you could scarcely scold the man; 
he did it, or might do it, in perfect innocence of the 
mischief he was perpetrating. And here we are 
tempted to try the patience of that many-headed crea¬ 
ture, “ our readers,” by relating an anecdote respecting i 
