328 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[Novembc", 



and the amount of hard coal burned (by compu- 

 tation) is about the same as that burned in com- 

 mon flues to heat the same amount of surface. 

 This whole steam arrangement cost me a little over 

 seven hundred dollars. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Disease in Winter Flowering Carna- 

 tions.— These are very liable to the attack of a 

 root fungus. The plants show the effects in a 

 yellowish-green tint to the leaves for some time 

 before final death. So far as we know, no certain 

 remedy is known. Some Carnation growers lose 

 large numbers of plants during the winter. 



Good Orchids in September. — At the Sep- 

 tember meeting of the New York Horticultural 

 Society the committee reported that the Orchids 

 were e.xtremly meritorious for the season, especially 

 the Odontoglossum vexillarium, 2 spikes, 16 flow- 

 ers; Saccolabium guttatum Holfordi, i spike, and 

 Laelia Dayanum, 2 flowers, in the ist Prize lot; and 

 Cypripedium Outramiana, a hybrid, evidently be- 

 tween Roezlii and Sedeni, 4 spikes, and Zygopeta- 

 lon Granteri, 2 spikes, in 2d Prize lot. The Pha- 

 lasnopsis violaceum, shown as the new plant, is a 

 gem of the first water — labellum and center of 

 flowers richest riolet rose, sepals margined white 

 and tipped green, deliciously scented. 



Orchids of Easy Culture. — Many hesitate 

 to grow the beautiful tropical orchids, under the 

 belief that they require expensive houses, and 

 expensive skill to manage. This may be so of 

 many kinds, but there are numbers which will do 

 very well under simple treatment. The writer had 

 a small plant of Catleya Mossas some six or seven 

 years ago, growing in moss in a galvanized-wire 

 basket, which produced one spike of flowers in 

 March, in a cool greenhouse — say about 55° or 

 6o°. In May it is suspended in the open-air on a 

 branch of a tree, and remains till the middle of 

 September, when it is removed to its old place in 

 the cool house. In a couple of years of this treat- 

 ment it bore two flowers yearly, and the next spring 

 three pseudo-bulbs will flower. 



Panicum PLfCATUM. — For those who are not 

 overstocked with small palms, and wish for a plant 

 with handsome and graceful foliage, I would 

 recommend Panicum plicatum. It is a grass of 

 the easiest culture, the usefulness of which for 

 decorative purposes can scarcely be over-esti- 

 mated. A pinch of seed sown in August in a 



warm house and pricked off, five in a 6-inch pot, 

 made what looked like single plants, 3 feet high 

 and as much through, by December, and when 

 used for decoration in the mansion was very much 

 admired. Its leaves are about two feet long, and 

 three inches broad in the widest part, beautifully 

 plicated, or folded lengthwise, and bent sickle 

 shape, so as to fall gracefully all around the pot. 

 The folds in the leaves make it appear to have 

 several shades, varying from a very light to a dark 

 green color. It is, I think, best treated as an an- 

 nual, and sown in successional batches. I intend 

 growing it by hundreds. It seems to me not very 

 particular about temperature, but a friend living 

 in Co. Meath, who recoinmended it to me, says 

 he tried it outside there during the last summer, 

 and it was not satisfactory. It is, however, worth 

 a trial in sheltered situations in the south of Eng- 

 land. — Hm. Taylor, in Gardener s Chronicle. 



Packing Cut Fowers. — During a year I re- 

 ceive some hundreds of boxes of flowers from all 

 parts of Europe, and in seven cases out of ten 

 these flowers are completely ruined by being 

 packed in dry cotton wool. Of all packing ma- 

 terial for delicate blossoms, it is the worst I know. 

 The best is clean, fresh wood moss (Hypnum), 

 and a little tissue paper may be wrapped around 

 each flower, when large, or around the clusters or 

 bunches when small. If moss be not at hand, 

 then soft, green leaves are preferable to cotton 

 wool, or the good flowers may be carefully ar- 

 arranged among commoner ones without any 

 other packing except a wet newspaper ; better still, 

 blotting paper at top and bottom of the box or 

 basket. Nearly all flowers are better cut in the 

 bud stage, just before opening. So cut, they pack 

 more firmly, and travel more securely than when 

 fully expanded, and thus give far more satisfaction 

 on their arrival. The buds of daffodils, irises, 

 water liUes, roses, gladioli, tulips, poppies, etc., 

 never carry safely unless packed in some moist 

 moss or fresh leaves, and in the bud stage. — The 

 Garden. 



Heliotrope Roi des Noirs. — This is, we 

 think, the deepest colored variety we have yet seen. 

 Its dense heads of bloom are of an intensely deep 

 purple, and their perfume also seems to be intensi- 

 fied compared with that of paler kinds. It is a 

 most desirable plant to have in the conservatory 

 at this season if only for its perfume. It is now in 

 great beauty in the Royal Exotic Nursery, Chelsea, 

 where we saw it a few days since. — The Garden. 



Cattleya Moss^. — A friend, who has just 



