The recent sale of the late Mrs. Morgan's Orchids has been the theme of so many articles in the daily papers, that people who do not even know that such a magazine as the Gardeners' Monthly is in existence, have been brought to inquire about them. This collection was estimated to be worth $200,000, and brought at the sale about $45,000. Considering how comparatively few people know of their worth and beauty in our country, even this figure is very good, though it must be said that most of the best bargains, Vanda Sanderiana for $750, for instance, were bought by English people to send back again to England from whence they originally came. It takes a lifetime to grow a large specimen, or a small fortune to send to the tropics to search for and successfully get a large specimen; and aside from the unique beauty and fragrance of an orchid, they have an intrinsic money value wholly independent of mere " fancy " in the price. The publicity given to the sale will however undoubtedly lead to a greatly increased culture of these beautiful plants.

There has been a great deal said about steam heating in our columns of late. It might seem, on the first thought, that this was only of interest to commercial florists who desire to erect houses on a large scale. But it was our conviction that indirectly the matter was of interest to all who loved winter flowers; whether in rooms or small greenhouses. Many large dwellings are now heated by steam, and where this is the case, a branch to the small conservatory or plant window solves the whole difficulty about heating these cosy little places. Besides, many people now prefer to buy cut flowers rather than grow them themselves, and hence if the perfection of steam heating will reduce the cost of raising flowers it becomes a question of interest to everybody.

There will still be many who want windows and small plant houses heated for plants, who have no chance to do it by steam. These will yet have to depend on the ordinary cellar heaters; or, if these cannot be had, wood stoves or other contrivances. As a rule, coal oil stoves are the best. Shutters, outside or inside, which keep in the heat, are often as valuable as inside methods of supplying heat which is lost.

Again, it is wise to attempt to grow in these places only such plants as require little heat. The old camellia and azalea are still among the best tor small greenhouses.

Greenhouses attached to dwellings were formerly called conservatories. They were used simply to keep plants in bloom, not to grow them. After blooming they were sent back to the greenhouse, or to the florist where they came from. But of late years small greenhouses attached to dwellings are called conservatories, whether the plants are grown as well as flowered or not.

Pot culture, whether in rooms or greenhouses, depends, in a great measure, for its success, on how to water properly. Everything is simple after that. Now, the oftener plants want water, the healthier they will be; but to give them water when they do not need it is "awfully " bad practice. The " drainage " - that is to say, the material over the hole at the bottom of the pot - is in order to help carry water rapidly away. It seldom hurts a plant to give it a great deal of water, provided it runs rapidly through the pot, and away through the hole at the bottom. Therefore if you give a plant water in some quantity and it does not run through rapidly, be assured there is something wrong with the drainage. We must always watch very carefully when the plant is dry, before watering it. But the best plan is to turn the pot upside-down, and knock the edge against a post, letting the ball fail into the left hand, examine the bottom of the ball and take away whatever may obstruct the water's passage, and then return to the same pot. We should like to repeat, so that it may be always present in the mind of the novice in pot culture, that it is almost impossible to give a plant too much water, when the water passes away rapidly through the soil and through the hole in the bottom of the pot.

Of course our philosophical readers, who have followed the articles in the Gardeners' Monthly, especially its Natural History Department, know the reason for this; but in this column the idea is to give only practical directions, and to leave reasons alone.