378 THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



ANTHURIUM SCHERZEKIANUM. 



One of the finest plants of this fine stove-plant I have ever seen is in 

 the collection of Sigismund Schloss, Esq. of Bowdon, Cheshire. This 

 plant bore seventy spathes when I saw it a week or two ago ; and the 

 head-gardener, Mr James Campbell, informed me that it was not at its 

 best, having, on one occasion, borne over 100 of its bright scarlet 

 bracts. It was originally a very small plant, presented to Mr Schloss, 

 along with other choice exotics, as a birthday gift ; and it would seem 

 as if the good wishes of the donors to the receiver had, in some 

 measure, been partaken of by the plant. Eine specimens of this plant 

 are often shown by Messrs Cole & Sons, Mr T. Baines, T. M. Shuttle- 

 worth, Esq., and other well-known exhibitors ; but I have never seen 

 the above surpassed in size, or in the number of its brilliant spathes. 



E. W. B. 



DENDROBIUM BENSOISTLE. 



Perhaps it is beyond question that we have not a more easily managed, 

 a more beautiful, nor a more useful Orchid than the old and well-known 

 Dendrobium nobile. It can be had in bloom from early spring, or 

 even from the middle of winter, to the end of June. In Dendrobium 

 Bensonise we have quite, if not more than its equal in beauty and dura- 

 tion of flower. And D. Bensoniae has the recommendation of blooming 

 from June till September, and thus so very desirably continuing a long 

 succession of bloom from two of the most lovely and useful decorative 

 Orchids in cultivation. It is scarcely possibly to over-estimate the 

 beauty of D. Bensonise. It has precisely the same habit of D. nobile, 

 sending up from well-established plants growths from 20 to 24 inches 

 long, which, when well ripened, are clothed from bottom to top with 

 its beautiful clusters of flowers. Any one who can accommodate eight 

 or twelve plants of this Dendrobe, and an equal number of D. nobile, 

 need never be without a fine show of their lovely blossoms from Jan- 

 uary to August ; for by getting them to make and ripen their growth, 

 and resting them in succession, they are easily got to bloom in the 

 same order, and so keep up a long succession of bloom. 



D. Bensoniae was introduced from Moulmein b}'" Colonel Benson, 

 after whom it is named. The flowers are large — nearly 2 inches in 

 diameter when strongly grown. They are pure white except the lip, 

 which has a rich deep golden yellow disc, with, generally, two large 

 brownish -purple spots near their base. It, however, varies in its 

 markings on imported plants, some being without the spots, and are 

 in consequence not so eff'ective. It is a deciduous variety, and does 



