Kovemb«r 27, 1878. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICDLTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



423 



crimson. It lasts nearly a month in beanty if care is taken to 

 keep the flowers dry. Native of Colombia. 



C. LABiATA. — SimUar in habit to C. Mossiir, but more robust, 

 with broader and darker foliage ; the flowers are very large, 

 and produced during autumn and winter ; the racemes bear 

 three or four flowers, each from i to inches from tip to tip of 

 the sepals, which are broad, and rich deep rose colour ; lip large, 

 rose colour at the base, but stained in front with rich deep 

 crimson. There are several varieties of this plant. Native of 

 Brazil. 



C. Warnerii. — This is one of the handsomest of the summer- 

 blooming kinds; it is a plant of robust growth, with stout 

 pseudobulbs and broad leathery leaves, evidently related to 

 the preceding species. There are many varieties which have 

 been imported in some quantities, but nearly all fall far short 

 of the original form, in which the flowers are about G inches 

 across; sepals and petals broad and of good substance, and deep 

 rose in colour ; lip large, beautifully fringed in front, and deep 

 rich crimson. It lasts a long time in full beauty. 



C. ExoNiENSis. — A hybrid between C. Mossia; and Lfclia 

 purpurata, produced in this country by Mr. Dominy, and at 

 once one of the most beautiful and free-flowering kinds we 

 have. In habit the plant is intermediate, and produces a large 

 raceme, bearing from three to five flowers ; sepals and petals 

 broad, soft rose colour; lip much enlarged in front, where the 

 colour is an intensely rich velvety rose-purple lined with gold, 

 the throat being soft golden yellow. It is at present rather 

 rare, bu^ should be added to every collection. 



L-ELIA. 



This genus differs but Uttle from the preceding in general 

 appearance, and in treatment entirely conforms to the rules laid 

 down for its management ; the great point of distinction lies 

 in the number of pollen-masses, which, however, is not 

 material to the amateur. 



L. ELEOASS.— A plant which no collection should lack ; it 

 usually grows about 2 feet high, bearing upon its somewhat 

 slender pseudobulbs a pair of leathery dark green leaves, from 

 between which the racemes rise. There are an immense 

 quantity of varieties, but the sepals and petals in the ordinary 

 form are white tinged with rose, and the lip is a brilliant shade 

 of purple. They are produced during the autumn months. 

 Native of Brazil. 



L. Perrinii. — This is another charming plant, producing 

 it.s flowers during autumn and winter. In habit of growth it 

 resembles a Gattleya, and bears a single leaf upon the top of 

 the pseudobulbs ; the racemes bear several flowers : sepals and 

 petals Ught vinous purple, lip crimson in front, with a white 

 throat. It is thoroughly distinct from any other kind in culti- 

 vation. Native of Brazil about Rio. 



L. poRPUR-iTA. — This stately plant is the most magnificent 

 of all the tribe; the pseudobulbs are stout, and bear upon the 

 apex a very large, oblong, thick, leathery dark green leaf ; the 

 raceme is produced from the junction of the two, and bears 

 from four to six flowers, measuring 5 or G inches in diameter ; 

 in fine examples the Eepals and petals are broad and pure 

 white ; lip large, dark purple in colour, tinged with rosy-purple, 

 throat white. There are numerous slight variations from tlwse 

 colours, but all are beantifnj '- " - -■s during the .,pring and 

 Bummer months, and '■'■-'" '^^'' ^, ™. ''" j perfection. 

 Native of Brazil. — ExiIuioXhkde. " ^"f '" . 



IMPEOVEMENT IT< ITALY. 

 Mt object in staying at Avezzano was not to look at the 

 town, but to inspect the works by which Prince Inrlonia has 

 converted what was once a marsh, forty-two miles 'in circum- 

 ference, called Lake Fucino or ^i Celano, into a fertile rural 

 district, intended to support Pad accommodate two or three 

 thousand labourers. It is an enterprise in which Imperial 

 Rome, in the palmy days of her power, had at first failed, and 

 at last only partially succeeded, while the neglect of after ages 

 had almost entirely obliterated every trace of her achievements. 

 The lake was an inconvenient neighbour to the Province, and 

 as the ebb and flow of its level wrought either flood or fever to 

 the surrounding villages, Caisar, we are told, and after him 

 Claudius and Nero, bethought themselves of a remedy for the 

 evil by an outlet which should discharge the waters of the lake 

 into the Liris, the bed of which was about 80 feet below the 

 bottom of the lake. The intention of the Romans was, how- 

 ever, not to drain the lake, but simply to reduce it to one-third 

 of its original dize. The work of the Cffisars was not properly 



executed, nor was it thoroughly mended by the exertions of th(» 

 later Emperors who took it in hand. The Middle Ages foand 

 the channel already choked-up, and the efforts of the Empe-ror 

 Frederick II., the creative spirit of this region, to re-open it, 

 were unavailing. It was this task, to which so many great 

 sovereigns had proved unequal, that a private mau. Prince 

 Torlonia, took upon himself. He bought-off a company which 

 had obtained a grant of the lake in 1852, but which failed in 

 its attempts, and, with the aid of English, French, and Swiss 

 engineers, he went to work in good earnest in 1858. He ex- 

 pected at first that the work could be achieved at an outlay of 

 1,000,000 Roman crowns (£200,000), but he soon found out 

 that the expense would exceed twice that sum — indeed, it is 

 said to have risen to more than £1,000,000; and, in spite of 

 his well-known enormous wealth, the peasants of the environs 

 doubted " whether Torlonia would drain the lake, or the lake 

 drain Torlonia." His success was, however, splendid. He re- 

 opened and greatly widened the old Roman channel, and made 

 it four miles in length and about 21 yards in width. Through 

 this channel an extent of about 3G,000 acres of the lake was 

 drained, and the whole ground will, it is said, bo laid bare and 

 brought into cultivation before next spring. 



I drove out to see this stupendous work early in the morning, 

 as the thick autumn mist broke before the rays of a sickly sun, 

 giving, in spite of the popular proverb, a very faint hope of a 

 fine day. Where a huge lock moderates the outflow of the 

 water a monumental building in white Travertine is now rising, 

 to be dedicated, it is said, to the Immaculate Conception, but 

 on a central monolith of which an inscription will send down 

 to posterity the date of the achievement and the name of its 

 princely promoter. The ground rescued from the lake haa 

 already been cut out into large squares, intersected by magni- 

 ficent roads, along which are to rise four hundred peasant 

 dwellings, with twenty-four chapels and two convents. These 

 buildings, and the barns, sheds, and other premises necessary 

 for cultivation on the largest scale, will be raised at a cost of 

 £160,000. The whole estate of 15,000 hectares will be organ- 

 ised as a monster model farm, to bo colonised by labourers 

 from the various estates of the Prince. Large tracts of the 

 ground reclaimed are already yielding corn crops at a profit of 

 30 to 30 per cent., and will continue to do so for three years 

 without manure, while the upper slopes of the lake bed are 

 mantled over with young low vineyards, the produce of which 

 can hardly fail to be of the best quality. — [Correspondent of ths 

 Times.) 



PBEPARING FOR WINTER— PLANT 

 PROTECTION. 

 At the present price of coal, economy in its consumption 

 becomes a very important part of garden economics ; and as 

 very probably we may have a hard winter before us through 

 which to tide tender plants, a few hints with regard to tho 

 means of bringing them safely through the coming months 

 with as little demand as may be on the coal vault and heatirg 

 apparatus will not be unreasonable, and may be of use to some 

 of our readers. In the first place, the too common practice of 

 hard firing, with a view to keeping-up an unnecessarily high night 

 temperature, is one that with advantage might be considerably 

 modified. The apprehension of injury from the fall of the 

 mercury at night is much greater than it need be. More espe- 

 cially may this be the case where plants are grown through 

 the summer and autumn as they ought to bo, in a wholesome, 

 invigorating atmosphere, with plenty of light and air, resulting 

 in glossy leathery foliage, and stout short-jointed growths. 

 Plants grown in this way will come safely through with the 

 mercury standing in the morning at a point which might not 

 bo for the advantage of kindred plants, whose puny and attenu- 

 ated growths had been developed under the opposite or cod- 

 dling system. The fact is, we are going against nature's way 

 when going-in for high night temperatures at any season ; but 

 more especially is this the case at the season of rest, when the 

 supposed desirable point is to be kept up by fire heat. If, 

 instead of relying so much on fire heat, our people would have 

 more faith in external coverings of sorao kind, it would be to 

 the advantage of themselves and their plants. Its adoption 

 would relieve them from anxiety during the prevalence of frost, 

 even though the fire should go out and the pipes cool down ; 

 and the plants, not being unseasonably stimulated, would be in 

 somewhat more natural condition when again entering on their 

 season of growth. Protection in this way may bo effected, 

 either by the protecting material being made to run up and 



