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THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[November, 



home. And even where travel is desirable, it is, 

 for financial or other reasons, quite impossible 

 in a large proportion of cases. 



To have always at hand and readily available 

 so complete and withal so agreeable a health- 

 resort at home as that furnished by a room well 

 stocked with plants must prove an inestimable 

 boon to the despairing invalid. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Public Decorations. — The newspapers de- 

 scribing the President's western trip, all refer to 

 the remarkably beautiful floral decorations of 

 the parlors of the Walker House, in which the 

 President was received by the citizens of Salt 

 Lake City. The Salt Lake Herald says these 

 beautiful decorations were under the direction 

 of Mr. John Reading, florist, of that city. 



Double Bouvardia. — A double white Bouvar- 

 dia is among the most recent of desirable novel- 

 ties announced. 



Rose Perle des jardins. — "Rosy Posey," re- 

 ferring to the article of W. E. Meehan, on cut 

 flowers, suggests a doubt as to this variety being 

 a hybrid tea. 



Orchids in America. — The ease with which 

 tropical orchids can be grown in America as 

 compared with the old world is leading to their 

 more general culture. A friend who has just re- 

 turned from a visit to Mr. Such's magnificent 

 establishment, speaks in high terms of their 

 luxuriance. 



Orchid Growing.— The old notion that orchids 

 must have expensive houses and expensive skill 

 before they can be successfully grown, has been 

 very much against their culture. A few days 

 ago we saw a Stanhopea with sixteen flowers ex- 

 panded at once, and which simply had its basket 

 hung under trees all summer; and here before 

 us is a letter of a friend at Troy, N. Y., who says, 

 " I commenced my collection as window plants, 

 and grew them for several years just as other 

 window plants. Now I have a small house for 

 them, 30x18, and have six hundred plants." 



Burbidgea nitida.— New plants appear con- 

 tinually, and somehow, the old ones disappear, 

 though frequently possessing more agreeable 

 points than the novelties. But even in the oldest 

 collections we find sometimes Hedychiura co- 

 xonarium with its sweet Orchid-like white flowers, 



or the no less attractive Hedychium Gardperi- 

 anum, with yellow flowers, which seem to resist 

 the most careless treatment, under which so 

 many good things disappear. They require no 

 further care to do magnificently than to be 

 planted out in a hot, slightly damp place during 

 summer, and potted in fall, flowering in a cool 

 greenhouse before Christmas. Any new addition 

 to this class will be welcome. 



Messrs. James Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, Eng- 

 land, have brought out an entirely new genus of 

 this class, of which we give the following ac- 

 count : 



This very beautiful plant is the type of an 

 entirely hew genus, with the habit of Hedychium, 

 but with the lip reduced to a small stipitate 

 blade, and with no lateral inner segments of the 

 perianth. It grows in shady forest, in N. W. 

 Borneo, at an altitude of 1,000 to 1,500 feet, in 

 spots where there is little undergrowth. It 

 thrives best where the rhizomes form matted 

 masses on moist rocks, covered by vegetable de- 

 bris, producing ten to thirty slender flowering 

 stems, each bearing a panicle of twelve to twenty 

 flowers. The leaves are. of a lively glossy green 

 on both surfaces, and serve to set off" the rich 

 orange scarlet color of the flowers. 



The above is extracted from Sir J. D. Hooker's 

 description published in the Botanical Magazine, 

 for 1879, Tab. 6403. 



The plant is named after Mr. Burbidge, its 

 fortunate discoverer, when collecting for us in 

 Borneo, in 1878." 



We give an illustration on the opposite page. 



QUERIES. 



Palms. — J. D. S., Upper Sandusky, Ohio, says : 

 " I wish you would prepare or have prepared for 

 the Gardener's Monthly directions for the 

 treatment and care of palms, for the benefit of 

 those who have neither conservatories or skilled 

 gardeners, and yet keep a few Palms as summer 

 ornaments for the lawn. You have taught us to 

 expect a great deal from the Monthly, and I 

 hope I am not asking too much." 



[Many palms, most that are in general culture, 

 will keep very well indeed in any room secure 

 from frost. If kept cool, they do not need much 

 light. We know some who keep them well in 

 cellars ; but cellars are so apt to get too cool or 

 too hot, and it is risky to try them. Some people, 

 however, have cellars that are lighted by area 



