The most useful of all the cool orchids are the Cattleyas, Lycastes, Oncidiums, and Cypripediums. The last genus supplies the most famous, because most useful, of all kuown varieties of greenhouse orchids, and the beautiful C. insigne, or lady's slipper. This is a most accommodating plant, for it will grow grandly in the stove, and flower there all the

winter through, but it will also thrive in a snug greenhouse, and may be nicely grown in a fern case in the parlour, and, indeed, in skilful hands, it becoms a first-rate plant.

To grow a fine specimen, half fill the pots with large pot-sherds, over these place a layer of moss, and fill up with a mixture of mellow turfy loam or tough peat, with a fourth part of