THE 0RCHIDACEA2 AND THEIR CULTURE. 
137 
the humid and the dry seasons cannot be combined in a single 
stove ; and to make that stove alternately moist and dry would 
limit the cultivation to such species only as come into flower at 
nearly the same time. 
It is to be understood that the warm and dry stove is the place 
of rest for the plants ; and they should be removed into this as 
soon as they have matured their pseudo-bulbs, which are the 
offsets or succession plants. This treatment must not however 
be general; because, though some species take their repose as 
soon as the pseudo-bulbs are perfected, other species show flower 
immediately upon this ; and such as do so, do not of course sub¬ 
side into their annual repose until the flowering is over. There¬ 
fore they should be kept in the warm and moist house until the 
flowers are about to open, and then removed into the dry and 
warm one ; by which the size of flower occasioned by the moisture 
will be retained, and the colours will be more brilliant, the scent 
finer, and the flowers more durable, than if they were allowed to 
lemain in the moist stove during the whole time of flowering. 
After the flowering is over, they should remain in the warm and 
dry stove until they again show signs of growth; and when they 
do this they should be removed to the hot and moist one. By 
this means the plants will be worked as nearly according to nature 
as can be done by artificial means ; and consequently they will be 
more healthy and vigorous in their growth, and far superior in 
their flowering, to what they would be were they attempted to 
be forced unnaturally. 
Their periods of growth are very different, and thus they require 
attendance, and shifting from the one stove to the other through¬ 
out a good many months. Some begin to grow in March, and 
others in all the months from March to September inclusive, and 
a few are later even than that. The times which they require in 
completing the growth of their pseudo-bulbs, are also very different. 
Some do it in six weeks, some require six months, and others 
periods intermediate between these ; and thus a good collection 
requires many periodical treatments for the different species, 
though the two stoves, one dry and the other moist, are sufficient 
for them all. These, as has been said, give the two grand cha¬ 
racteristic seasons of the plant; and the time of the season for 
each species must be discovered by actual observation. 
Such species as do not begin to show flower immediately after 
VOL. 1 . NO. VI, t 
