elapsed it will be ready to receive
the plants.

In such a house heated as a cool, intermediate house, with a minimum
temperature of 50 deg. to 60 deg. Fahr. in winter, a large number of showy
Orchids can be grown successfully. Those species which require great
heat should be carefully avoided, for, although cool-house Orchids are
easily managed in a house warmer than is necessary for them, the
hot-house kinds usually fail in a temperature which is too low to allow
of their making growth under favourable conditions. In such an
intermediate house the Odontoglossums, Masdevallias and other favourite
cool-house Orchids can be grown successfully, if arranged in the cooler
part of the house and carefully watered. The Cattleyas, Laelias, and the
garden hybrids should be placed on the staging in the middle of the
house, well up to the light; the Brazilian Oncidiums, _Sophronitis
grandiflora_, and Stanhopeas should be suspended from the roof of the
house, but in such positions as will avoid placing them over the plants
on the side staging. The Odontoglossums and Cochliodas may be
accommodated on the side staging in the cooler and moister part of the
house. In such a house all the varieties of _Cypripedium insigne_, _C.
Spicerianum_, _C. Charlesworthii_, and all the green-leafed section
known as Selenipediums, will thrive admirably, and a very large
selection of other showy Orchids, including Zygopetalums; but again I
would say that species which are usually regarded as warm-house Orchids
must be rejected.

SHADING

It should be distinctly understood that every Orchid house needs to be
fitted with proper means of shading, extending over the whole roof and
removable when necessary. Some cultivators think they meet the case by
providing shading only on the sunny side, or by painting the glass with
some kind of preparation more or less in the nature of whitewash. Such
preparations should never be used, because, when this is once placed on
the glass, the shade, such as it is, is there in dull as well as bright
weather, in the night time as well as the day, and for the greater part
of the time, especially in dull seasons, it obstructs light which is
necessary for the proper development of the plants. Another important
objection to their use is that shading given by these washes wears off
and leaves the plants exposed to the full sunlight. The substance is
washed off by the rains and carried into the rain-water tanks, thus
caus