a soft tooth brush saturated with the same strength 
insecticide you use for aphids and brush the scale 
off. Scale may also appear under the husk which 
covers the bulb, and which may be stripped off when 
it dries. Never use an insecticide containing oil. 
Occasionally one or two of the rearmost leaves 
on your plant will turn yellow and drop off. Do 
not let that disturb you; that is normal. If all of the 
leaves turn yellow and drop off, that means that you 
have done something wrong. It usually means that 
the plant has been watered too much or has been 
chilled for a prolonged period while wet. If this 
happens, place the plant in complete shade and 
cease all watering until new growth starts. 
Orchid plants will stand a lot of punishment, 
much more than many other kinds of house plants. 
They are, however, not indestructible. They usually 
do well and last for years for _ persons who love 
flowers and who will follow the directions given. 
VARIETIES OF ORCHIDS 
These few paragraphs are written for the person 
who is buying his first orchid plants, who may want 
a variety in his collection, and who wants to have 
some idea of the kind of flowers his plants will pro- 
duce. 
Plants may be listed as species or hybrids. When 
listed as species that means that they are direct off- 
spring of the original, beautiful jungle plants of 
family and variety named. When listed as hybrids, 
it means that flowers of one variety or family have 
been “crossed” or mated with another, to produce a 
new variety. Some persons have a preference for 
hybrids; others for species. 
CATTLEYA orchids are those most generally sold 
by florists, including the hybrids formed by crossing 
with other species of similar characteristics. Most 
epiphytic hybrids are known as LAELIOCAT'T- 
LEYAS, BRASSOCATTLEYAS and BRASSOLAE- 
LIOCATTLEYAS, usually abbreviated Lc., Bc., and 
Bie 
When the word “alba” follows the name of a 
plant, it means that the petals and sepals are white, 
and that the lip or “trumpet” is colored. 
Seen less often in the flower shops, but valued 
by many as interesting items in a collection are Oncv- 
dium, with long sprays of small bright yellow flowers 
with cinnamon markings; Dendrobium, the flowers 
of which are small and usually white flushed with 
mauve; Epidendrum, with numerous color combina- 
tions ranging from dull greenish-white to bright or- 
ange; Phalaenopsis, with pink or white flowers. ‘There 
are others, including terrestrial types, requiring spe- 
cial treatment not described in these notes. 
