House and Garden 
that the^East India and Philippine varieties requir¬ 
ing great heat may be nearest the stove (or boiler 
when a steam heater is used); those from Brazil and 
other intermediate zones may come next, and varieties 
from greater altitudes or 
cooler climes last. The 
temperature of the orchid 
house should be 60 de¬ 
grees at night and 75 
degrees to 80 degrees in 
the daytime. Some 
plants from Peru and 
Mexico require plenty of 
sunlight as well as heat. 
To other varieties, the 
direct rays of the sun 
through the glass roof 
would be very injurious, 
so the panes are treated 
to a coat of white lead 
and gasolene. io in¬ 
sure moisture the tables, 
the floor, the moss and 
lichen covered walls are 
showered with water 
several times a day; for 
moisture there must be 
—not too much but 
enough. Climatic con¬ 
ditions without must also 
be reckoned with. The 
plants require plenty of 
fresh air, therefore a hot 
blast through the green¬ 
house would be fatal; 
as would a cold, wet 
gust. For this reason 
ventilators are placed near the ground, that the 
generous supply of fresh air may pass over the 
pipes and so be warmed, and take up moisture from 
the damp earthen floors before reaching the plants. 
Top ventilators are used to let the excess heat 
escape. 
The orchid is not, as many suppose, parasitic in 
its nature, although the larger class, the epiphytes, 
cling to trees or fasten their roots to cracks of the 
bark. It does not subsist upon tbe sap, but uses 
the tree merely as a support and feeds delicately 
upon the air. To this class belong the beautiful 
Cattleya and Phalaenopsis, tbe fErides, Dendro- 
bium, Saccolabium, Oncidium, Stanhopea and 
others. Even the earth growers (terrestrials) ask 
for but a light, rich, 
mossy loam in which to 
thrust their roots, from 
which they spring sprite¬ 
like into the air or swing 
head downward as in imi¬ 
tation of animal or insect 
friends of the 1 ungle. Of 
these very handsome and 
well known, are differ¬ 
ent species of Cypripe- 
dium, Odontoglossum, 
Calanthe, Neottia, etc. 
Fastidious in all its 
habits, the orchid de¬ 
mands and is grateful for 
frequent shower baths. 
It belongs literally to 
the leisure class. 
As a seed it lies in its 
well-warmed bed of moss 
often a year before deign¬ 
ing to peep out even the 
tiniest leaflet to show 
that it means to be up 
and doing, by and by. 
At the end of another 
year, if the conditions 
suit, it will have made, 
perhaps,three quarters of 
an inch of growth in its 
two blade-like leaflets. 
At the end of two years, 
with its two leaves grown two inches, and its tiny 
pseudobulb predicting bloom, it is possible to call 
it a plant, but not by any sort of coaxing or forcing 
will it condescend to flower before the fourth or 
sixth or seventh year. When it does put forth its 
blooms one is reminded that all highly organized life 
is slow in maturing, but that the results are often 
worth while. In its endurance it also gives proof 
of its being well bred. 
A visit to an orcbid house when the plants are at 
their best is a surprise and delight to all nature lovers. 
CYPRIPEDIUM 
100 
