December i, 18M. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



4'2!l 



not omit parts which the student must at some time digest ; 

 but he no introduces, so arranges, and so spices them, that 

 none are ill-flavoured, and none put on one side. Dropping 

 our metaphor, this volume is written in untechnical language, 

 begins by inserting a seed in tho soil, follows it through all its 

 changes, the growth of the perfect plant, the development and 

 uses of tho various parts, the phenomena of plant life, tho 

 various forms plants assume, and by which they are classed ; 

 shows how they are distributed over the world's surface, and the 

 scenery they form by their associated groups. All this is told 

 in readablo language, and illustrated by 44fi woodcuts, and 

 twenty-four full-page views of the scenery formed by the plants 

 in their native places. These illustrations are most artistic. 

 But we have borrowed from Messrs. Chapman it Hall two of 

 the engravings, and we will enable our readers to form a judg- 

 ment. 



" The flower of Victoria regia is about 40 inches in circum- 

 ference. The effect produced upon Sir Robert Schomburgk, 

 when he first saw this magnificent flower on the River Berbice 

 is thus described : — 



" ' It was on the 1st of January, while contending with the 

 difficulties nature opposed in different forms to our progress up 

 the River Berbice, that we arrived at a point where the river 

 expanded, and formed a currentless basin. Some object on the 

 southern extremity of this basin attracted my attention ; it 

 was impossible to form any idea what it could be ; and, ani- 

 mating the crew to increase the rate of their paddling, we were 

 shortly afterwards opposite the object that had raised my curi- 

 osity — a vegetable wonder. All calamities were forgotten ; I 

 felt as a botanist, and felt myself rewarded : a gigantic leaf, 

 from 5 to 6 feet in diameter, salver-shaped, with a broad rim, 

 of a light green above, and a vivid crimson below, rested on 

 the water. Quite in character with the wonderful leaf was the 

 luxuriant flower, consisting of many hundred petals, passing in 

 alternate tints from pure white to rose and pink. The smooth 

 water was covered with the blossoms, and, as I rowed from one 

 to the other, I always observed something new to admire.' The 

 leaves are of an orbicular form, the upper surface is bright 

 green, and they are furnished with a rim round the margin 

 from 3 to 5 inches in height ; on the inside the rim has a green 

 colour, and on the outside, like the under surface of the leaf, it 

 is of a bright crimson ; they have prominent ribs, which project 

 an inch high, radiating from a common centre; these are 

 crossed by a membrane, giving the whole the appearance of a 

 spider's web ; the whole leaf is set with prickles, and, when 

 young, is rolled up longitudinally. The stock of the flower is 

 an inch thick, and studded with prickles; the calyx is four- 

 leaved, each sepal is 7 inches in length, and 4 inches broad ; 

 the corolla covers the calyx with hundreds of petals ; when first 

 opened it is of a white colour, but subsequently changes to 

 pink ; it is very fragrant. Like all other Water Lilies, its 

 petals and stamens pass into each other, a petal often being 

 found surmounted with half an anther. The seeds are nume- 

 rous, and imbedded in a spongy substance. This plant has by 

 some botanists been placed in the genus Euryale, whilst Lindley 

 thinks it is nearer Nyrnphrea, from which it differs in the 

 sepals and petals being distinct, the papilla of the stigma being 

 prolonged into a horn, and the changing colour of its petals. 

 This splendid plant has now been successfully cultivated in 

 many of the hothouses of this country. Beautiful specimens 

 are to be seen in the Royal Gardens, at Kew, and at the Crystal 

 Palace, Sydenham, at Chatsworth, Sion House, and elsewhere.'' 

 " ' There is no order of plants,' says Dr. Lindley, writing of 

 Orchids, ' the structure of whose flowers is so anomalous as 

 regards the relation borne to each other by the parts of repro- 

 duction, or so singular in respect to the form of the floral 

 envelope. Unlike other endogenous plants, the calyx and 

 corolla are not similar to each other in form, texture, and 

 colour; neither have they any similitude to the changes of 

 outline that are met with in such irregular flowers as are 

 produced in other parts of the vegetable creation. On the 

 contrary, by an excessive development and singular conforma- 

 tion of one of the petals called the labellum or lip, and by 

 irregularities either of form, size, or direction of the other 

 sepals and petals, by the peculiar adhesion of these parts to 

 each other, and by the occasional suppression of a portion of 

 them, flowers are produced so grotesque in form that it is no 

 longer with the vegetable kingdom that they can be compared, 

 but their resemblance must be sought in the animal world. 

 Hence we see such names among our native plants as the Bee, 

 Fly, Man, Lizard, and Butterfly Orchis, and appellations of a 

 like nature in foreign countries.' Of these resemblances some 



idea may be formed by tho annexed engraving, where 1 repre- 

 sents Oncidium raniferum, or the Frog Oncidium, so called 

 because its lip bears at its baso tho figure of a frog couchant ; 

 2, Peristeria elata, the Spirito Santo plant of Panama, in whose 

 flower we find tho likeness of a dovo in tho act of descending 



,^-*Tff*~^ 



on the lip ; 3 is Prescottia colorans, whose lip is a fleshy hood ; 

 4, Gongorafulva ; 5, Cirrhica tristis ; 6, Cycnoches ventricosum, 

 singularly like a swan, the arched column forming the head 

 and neck ; 7, Oncidium pulvinatum ; S, Bolbophyllnm barbi- 

 gerum ; 9, Catasetum viride ; and 10, Peristeria cerina." 



These quotations are sufficient to show that the translator 

 has done his work well, and we know of no oversight except 

 one in the preface, which, consequently, has nothing to do 

 with the book's correctness — we allude to the statement that 

 plants, the world's "natural ornament, were absent " before the 

 Deluge. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS, 

 Mb. Joseph Henderson, who for more than half a century 

 was the gardener of the Earls Fitzwilham, at Wentworth- 

 Woodhouse, died on the 22nd of November. He had left the 

 Earl's service in 1863. Not only was he a good gardener, but 

 a good botanist. His notes, published in the " Magazine of 

 Botany," in 1837, on the germination of Ferns, and some other 

 researches in the same field, obtained for him an Associateship 

 of the Linnean Society. 



We repeat our reminder that the latest date at which 



gardeners can send notice of their intention to be examined at 

 Chiswick on the 18th inst., is the 11th. 



In addition to the cups we mentioned as already pro- 

 mised as prizes, to be awarded at the Royal Horticultural 

 Society's Exhibition at Bury next July, we are glad to learn 

 that the £25 for the ladies' cup for the be'st collection of Orchids, 

 is provided, as well as the Borough Members' and the Town 

 cups. 



In order to control the temperature of hothouses, as we 



see by the New York Daily Ne us, Morin has constructed a 



