THE 
u 
FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
September, 1843. 
ON STANHOPEA. 
WITH AN ENGRAVING OF S. OCULATA. 
In the proper management of orchideous plants, the system 
of alternate rest and excitement requires to be carried to 
its fullest extent, especially with those kinds which produce 
their flowers at one season and form new parts at another. 
Continual excitement causes a continual growth in the plant, 
which is quite incompatible with the formation of flower-buds, 
and their subsequent expansion; or, in other words, such plants 
cannot and do not produce flowers and pseudo-bulbs, or stems 
and leaves, at the same time. This is a truism with respect to 
Orchideee, but it is one which cannot be too forcibly impressed 
on the cultivator’s mind. 
In order to carry this management out most efficiently, it is 
generally considered necessary to have two houses: the one to 
suit the growing period should be kept at a high temperature, 
and with a degree of moisture approaching the point of satura¬ 
tion ; the other, for the resting and blooming season, requires a 
temperature much lower, and a corresponding decrease of hu¬ 
midity. This difference is indisputably necessary where per¬ 
fection is desired, or a quantity grown, though much may be 
done in a single house, if of sufficient extent to allow a differ¬ 
ence of from five to ten degrees in the temperature, by removing 
the plants, as occasion requires, from the cool to the warm, and 
vice versa. 
The cultivator must also possess an acute observation and 
much practical tact, acquired only by experience, to enable him 
to determine exactly when to apply the exciting causes, and 
VOL. IV. no. x. 17 
