670 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



MARCH 24, 1898. 



a Stout Stem and large head of 

 branches and leaves can subsist on 

 relatively so small a quantity of soil. 

 From early spring till fall they want 

 an abundance of water. They are out 

 of doors all summer, or should he, so 

 the hose should play on their heads 

 freely and over watering of the soil is 

 about impossible from November to 

 April. A cold shed will keep them In 

 good order if it is not too dark and 

 where they won't get more than 10 de- 

 grees of frost. Some let them get dry 

 but less water will do than in the sum- 

 mer time. 



The Sweet Bay is a native of South- 

 ern Europe. All good boys should have 

 read in the good book that if they are 

 righteous in their lives they will 

 "flourish like the green bay tree." But 

 they must not become a millionaire by 

 keeping a department store or they 

 will be more like an aged pumpkin, 

 hollow, mushy and slushy inwardly. 

 This fine evergreen grows well and 

 is much planted in the milder parts of 

 the British Isles. I expect that all 

 over Ireland it grows finely and is sel- 



dom or never injured by frost In the 

 South of England it grows and flour- 

 ishes for years, but a winter comes 

 occasionally and kills it to the ground. 

 Such a win.ter was that of sixty and 

 sixty-one. 



The best time for us to cut back 

 growths or to keep it in that splendid 

 form that they are sent to us, is in the 

 spring just before they start to grow, 

 but if you wished a still more trim ap- 

 pearance you would have to pinch the 

 young growths as they develop. A 

 new tub and more root room is needed 

 every three or four years, but keep 

 them in as small a tub as possible. 

 Liquid manure will help them much 

 in April, May and June. To those who 

 have not made bows of their strong 

 bottom growths or hunted rabbits 

 beneath their branches, they may ap- 

 pear a cumbersome plant to occupy 

 valuable greenhouse room. They don't 

 want it. If never coddled up under 

 glass they will stand 15 degrees of 

 frost without harm, but rather give 

 them a little higher temperature. 



WM. SCOTT. 



A. B. C. NOTES ON CYPRIPEDIUMS. 



Our worthy editor made a pertinent 

 suggestion recently, namely that some- 

 thing of the nature of an a, b. c arti- 

 cle on cypripediums was desirable as 

 it would better enable those less fa- 

 miliar with this great family of or- 

 chids to understand and appreciate 

 such notes as may hereafter appear re- 

 lating to the newer and rarer varieties. 

 It is a matter of common occurrence 

 now to read of the flowering and chris- 

 tening of some new kind raised by 

 crossing others in cultivation and so 

 numerous have these hybrids become, 

 and so small the distinction of many, 

 that one realizes the force of the re- 

 mark often made by the casual ob- 

 server: "All cyps look alike to me." 

 Those here depicted are certainly in 

 some instances strikingly unlike each 

 other and make the above remark ap- 

 pear somewhat absurd, but there is 

 much truth in it notwithstanding, ow- 

 ing to the too common practice of 

 naming everything of hybrid origin, 

 and manufacturing varieties by the 

 dozen, from one cross and in some 

 instances all out of one seedpod. 



It is no great tax upon the memory 

 to recall the period when the very 

 possibilities of cross breeding among 



orchids were thought impossible, but 

 the artifices of man overcame the ob- 

 stacles of nature, with such success 

 that now in this cypripedium family 

 alone the varieties outnumber the or- 

 iginal species by more than ten to one. 

 The need for a, b, c notes therefore 

 becomes apparent when there are 

 more than one thousand recorded 

 names of cypripediums and yet not one 

 hundred of them have specific rank or 

 exist in a state of nature. 



The interest in orchids is annually 

 increasing, both commercially and pri- 

 vately, but the chaotic state of affairs 

 in the cyp. family is sufficient to strike 

 dismay into the heart of anyone who 

 would take it up at the present day 

 and get an intelligent understanding 

 of the different relationships in this 

 vast assemblage. Even those familiar 

 with past history and concurrent de- 

 velopments are asking "where we are" 

 and "whither are we going." The only, 

 light that will effectually illumine the 

 past and guide the grower of today 

 still shines and is exemplified by the 

 types and species that, in part, are 

 here portrayed, showing their widely 

 varying natural characteristics. In its 

 natural distribution the cypripedium is 

 cosmopolitan. There are hardy and 

 tender species, to be found in North 



and South America, from Canada to 

 Peru, in Europe and in Asia from Si- 

 beria to New Guinea. Some are terres- 

 trial, that is grow on the ground like 

 ordinary plants, all the hardy species 

 being of this nature, but the majority 

 are epiphytal, growing upon trees in 

 the tropics. 



With this much by way of intro- 

 duction, we will now take a glance at 

 the distinctive features of certain 

 types and the reader who can see and 

 fully grasp the purport of the succeed- 

 ing remarks should be materially as- 

 sisted in arriving at a better under- 

 standing of cypripediums and see how 

 even the apparently disordered hosts 

 we now have may be marshalled in 

 orderly array to a degree, not absolute, 

 but certainly comparative; as the 

 work of the hybridist has resulted in 

 the commingling of distinctive traits, 

 with a resultant chain of connected 

 links, a perfect sequence of variable 

 intermediate forms that operate to the 

 prevention of drawing hard and fast 

 lines. 



Taking first into consideration the 

 American species, I will refer as a type 

 to C. magniflorum in the picture. It 

 is a variety of a Central American spe- 

 cies named longiflorum, but you will 

 readily observe in the flower a great 

 likeness to the Mocassin flower. C. 

 spectabile, of our own latitudes, only 

 the latter is larger and more showy. 

 C. Roezli and C. Schlimi are somewhat 

 similar species and the intercrossing 

 of these has originated some fine va- 

 rieties. C. caudatum will be readily 

 acknowledged a most unique cyp. and 

 comes from Peru. The illustration 

 shows well the character of the flower, 

 those drooping tail like appendages be- 

 ing true petals, which have been 

 known to attain a length of 36 inches, 

 though usually they are not quite cis 

 long. John Dominy, the father of or- 

 chid hybridists, raised and is com- 

 memorated by C. Dominianum, the re- 

 sult of a cross between caudatum and 

 caricium, whilst the impress of its 

 parentage is manifest in other fine 

 hybrids, like grande, Schroederae and 

 Hardyanum. 



C. insigne, now so plentiful and r.op- 

 ular as a market cut flower, is one of 

 the oldest Asiatic species in cultivation 

 having been introduced from Nepaul 

 early in the present century. Apart 

 from its almost inflnite natural varia- 

 tion, which has found expression in 

 the naming of many of the most dis- 

 tinct varieties, it is also one parent 

 of at least a hundred named hybrids 

 in cultivation today. Whilst as I said 

 on a previous occasion, there are those 

 who deplore this mixing up and 

 wholesale manufacture of varieties it 

 is not fair t6 belittle the work of the 

 hybridist with broad generalizations, 

 ignoring the sterling acquisitions their 

 work has secured to us. "Look before 

 you leap," is a sound maxium, but 

 some of our best acquisitions in cyps. 

 partake more of the character of a leap 

 in the dark, yet have turned out to he 

 of far reaching importance. For ex- 

 ample, when C. insigne was first cross- 

 ed with C. Spicerianum, of which C. 



