During twenty years experience in gardening I do not remember having seen or heard of any one growing Cypripediums on blocks, and until last year did not think of such idea.

Having a very sickly plant of C. venustum, which gradually grew less in spite of all I could do, and not wishing to lose the plant, it occurred to me to put it on a block of wood or something similar.

I found among some peat a fern stool which I used instead of the wood. After washing the few poor roots the plant had I wired the plant to the stool, using nothing but moss to cover the roots. This was done about the 10th of June. At the end of July I had the satisfaction of seeing one large fleshy root, and continued to make roots until late in the fall. The leaves made during the time are much larger than the old ones and of a better color. In December it showed four flowers, and on one of the flower stems is a lateral not yet open.

A neighboring gardener has success with a plant of C. naevium which was very delicate but now improving, showing one flower. This plant is on a block of wood. If any of the contributors to the Monthly have tried this experiment I should like to know with what success. How long this class of plants would live and thrive under this treatment is a question. At any rate, when a sickly plant is established on blocks it is an easy matter to re-pot again.

[This is a novel idea in Cypripedium growing, and will surely be of great value to orchid growers. - Ed. G. M.]