t exposed to the north and north-east winds by a corridor or covered
structure, in which the potting-shed stores and entrance to the boiler
hold should be arranged. The greatest care must be taken that no fumes
from the heating apparatus can find their way into either the corridor,
potting-sheds, or plant-houses, or the plants will suffer the worst
consequences. Safety can easily be assured by thoroughly ventilating the
stoke-hold and making the partition between the corridor or offices and
the stoke-hold as air-tight as possible.

The wood-work, when of pitch-pine or other hard wood planed smooth, may
be oiled or varnished, painting being undesirable for new houses. In
course of time, however, painting has to be resorted to, and it is one
of the most trying operations about the Orchid houses. Great care has to
be taken to obtain a reliable quality of paint that will not harm the
plants, and to keep the house vacant for as long a time as possible for
the gases from the paint to escape. After the plants are returned to the
house some ventilation must be maintained day and night for a time. Tar
should not be used inside an Orchid house for any purpose.

THE STAGING

The staging must be arranged according to the width of the house. Narrow
houses may be provided with a stage on each side and a path through the
centre. Other structures of sufficient width should be furnished with a
side stage measuring 4 feet to 4 feet 6 inches in width, and a central
stage on a somewhat higher level, and rising in steps to the middle and
highest point.

[Illustration: PLATE II

MILTONIA VEXILLARIA

"EMPRESS AUGUSTA VICTORIA"

(This specimen, cultivated from a single growth, bore 126 flowers.)]

Iron frame-work is the best, because it is clean and almost
indestructible. The uprights resting on the floor should be fixed in
metal saucers, which, if kept filled with water, offer great obstacles
to insects ascending from the floor. The open wood-work resting on the
iron frames, and on which the plants are to stand, should be of teak or
pitch-pine, and arranged trellis-like. For some years past it has been
the practice to have a close, moisture-holding stage of slate, or tiles,
beneath the upper and open wood-work stage. It was an invention of my
own when adapting an ordinary plant-house with a slate stage to receive
one of the earliest importations of _Odontoglossum crispum_. The
existing slate stage was made water-tight at the joints