494 THE GARDENER. [Nov. 



an utter failure. "We went over a rather badly diseased field of 

 potatoes last autumn, poking out the tubers we could see protruding 

 above the surface of the soil ; only one of these we found diseased, 

 and not badly. Were it needful we could give many more instances, 

 and also experiments, all proving that the wet is the enemy we have 

 to contend against, and nothing else. Farmers and gardeners must 

 of course crop the land they hold, but they should select the driest, 

 and plant shallow. Would it not be worth while also, for farmers in 

 those districts where the soil is poor and thin, to plant potatoes more 

 extensively — turn potato-farmers, in fact ? In such districts thicker 

 planting could be practised to make up for shorter but sounder crops. 

 We have seen a poor gravelly brae turn out a comparatively sound 

 crop many a time when the rich meadow was a complete failure. 



A good deal has been said at different times about the advantages 

 of a change of ground. A gardener would not think of cropping the 

 same quarter with potatoes two years in succession if he could help 

 it ; but how do the cottagers get on 1 I know many plots and allot- 

 ments that have been cropped with potatoes year after year for more 

 than ten years, and yet the crops, to my knowledge, are always first- 

 rate, to say the least of them, where the ground has got an occasional 

 liming and a moderate dressing of manure annually. As fine a patch 

 of '' Sutton's Flour Ball " as I have seen anywhere this season is in a 

 garden which has been cropped with potatoes for nearly fourteen 

 years. The soil is not a good spade deep, for it never was trenched. 



J. S. 



]SrEW OR RARE ORCHIDS. 



There are now no less than seven hybrid Orchids in bloom in the Orchid- 

 houses at the Royal Exotic I^ursery, Chelsea, and they alone are a 

 sight every lover of Orchids would travel miles to see. Every one, 

 however, will not be able to do this, so in this paper I will describe 

 them, adding a few details of their history which may not be uninter- 

 esting. They have been raised for the most part by the indefatigable 

 Mr Dominy, who has devoted many years to the study of hybridisation 

 as aj)plied to this interesting class of plants. The result of his labours 

 has been amply rewarded by the production of several of the finest 

 Orchids in cultivation, amongst which we may here allude to Cattleya 

 Exoniensis, perhaps the finest in the entire group, with many free- 

 flowering qualities inherited from its parents, Cattleya mossi?e and 

 Loelia purpurata. As an illustrative example of what it is capable of 

 doing as a decorative or exhibition plant, I may be allowed to mention 

 the noble specimen grown by Mr J. Anderson at Meadow Bank, near 



