CHAPTER XVIII.
ORCHIDS AND PITCHER PLANTS.
The Orchids and Pitcher plants adapted for greenhouse culture are not sufficiently appreciated, owing, no doubt, to the prevalent belief that all such plants require steaming stoves, and are utterly beyond the reach of amateurs, whose short purses compel them to the observance of limited liability. It so happens, however, that a very choice selection may be made of plants equally to be desired for their curious structure, interesting history, and high floral beauty, and that such a selection may be grown to perfection in any greenhouse with the aid of a little more care than such things as bedding plants require. The best place for a few of these plants is in a compartment shut in by means of a glass screen at the warmest end of a house that is heated during winter sufficient for the safe keeping of a good collection of miscellaneous greenhouse plants. But if a house be constructed expressly for cool Orchids, we should advise that it be a smallish span-roofed structure, much below the ground line, and with the roof no higher than needful to allow of head room, even allowing that the path through the house is reached by descending three or four steps. The place should be damp and warm and snug. One great aid to success will be to have the brickwork of its natural colour, and clothed with such creepers as Ficus repens, and to have as little woodwork in the place as possible, and to have no whitewashed, glaring surfaces anywhere to reflect a dry heat on the under sides of the leaves of the plants. A width of twelve feet will allow of a flat table on each side, which may be made with boards and covered with a layer of sand; but we should prefer to have a bank of the natural soil supported by brick walls next the path. A layer of sandy peat might be spread on the surface and planted with the common green lycopodium, Selaginella denticulata, and on this
