, and a fillet of
cement was run along the back; the surface was then covered with clean
shingle, and home-made trellises, raised on bricks in three levels, were
placed along the close staging to receive the plants. It proved a great
success, and in the same house the small, bottom ventilators, the first
of their kind, but which have now become general, were an equally good
innovation. At that time, and for many years afterwards, the flooring of
Orchid houses was sealed by concrete or hard tiles, and the
moisture-holding lower stage was necessary to give a reasonable amount
of evaporating surface. More recently it has occurred to many of us that
a moisture-giving surface might be obtained from the natural earth, if
the earth was left either in its natural state or was given a coating of
coke-breeze or similar porous material, and trellises used for the
paths. In a similar way provision had to be made for the second object
of the close stage, namely, the checking of the direct upward heat from
the hot-water pipes. This has been done very effectively in some gardens
by arranging a much less elaborate and costly means than the full, close
staging generally in use. An iron frame is placed midway between the
hot-water pipes and the staging on which the plants rest; a shelf of
corrugated iron, slate, or tiles, extends from the back to about half
the width of the side staging, its inner edge being about midway in the
space beneath the staging, and an inch or so of space is left between
the back of the shelf and the wall of the house to allow some of the
heat from the pipes to pass that way, the greater part being diverted
towards the middle of the house by the intervention of the shelf which
is covered with turf or some other moisture-holding material. This is
kept continually moist by frequent syringings during the warm season,
when plenty of moisture in the air is required.

In arranging new houses having the natural earth for a floor, this plan
is less expensive and altogether preferable to the formal, close staging
of full width, which, however, should still be retained in adapting
ordinary plant-houses already provided with a tiled or cemented base,
unless it is convenient to remove the tiles and restore the natural
earth surface. In arranging the staging, one essential object has to be
kept in view, namely, that no part of it shall be out of easy reach; for
very wide stages are apt to cause the plants in the back rows to