1506 



RESEDA 



RESTREPIA 



-•^^ 



'i'^i^V, 





2088. Reseda alba. 



that of the old forms. It reminds one, when the flowers 

 are fresh, more of the fragrance of ripe nectarines or 

 apricots than of violets. It is only after the spikes have 

 been picked and begin to wilt that one recognizes the 

 sweet violet-like scent. The modern improved varieties 

 are likely to have very little scent when forced or fed 

 high, and in cases of excessive forcing they become 

 nearly or quite scentless. But if we let them wilt slightly, 

 or on sunny days after the moisture has dried up, the 

 powerful odor becomes very apparent. 

 The old forms seem to have the power of 

 volatilizing the ethereal oils freelj' un- 

 der normal conditions, while the more 

 highly bred only attain this power, to 

 its fullest extent, when the root pres- 

 sure is reduced. 



Gardeners frequently assert that Mign- 

 onette if grown in given 

 kinds of soil will be less 

 fragrant than when grown 

 iu certain other soils. 

 ^^^^Thus Henderson, in his 

 *'■ "Handbook of Plants," 

 states that "Mignonette 

 should always be grown 

 in light, sandy soils, if 

 possible; as when grown 

 in a rich loam it loses its 

 fragrance." To test this 

 matter, a number of plants 

 of the same variety (Im- 

 proved Victoria) were 

 grown in soils var3'ing in 

 proportion of sand and 

 clay and amount of ma- 

 nure as follows: Soil 1. 

 3 parts sand, % loam, ]4 

 dung, 34 mortar; Soil 2. 2 

 sand, 1 loam, K dung; Soil 

 3. 1 sand, 2 loam, 1 leaf- 

 mold; Soil 4. 1 sand, 2 

 loam, 1 mortar, 1 dung; 

 Soils. 2 loam, 1 mortar, 3^ dung; Soil 6. Clay loam with 

 some dissolved bone, NaNOa and charcoal; Soil 7. 

 Loam, clay and K2SO4 (NH4)2S04, P2O5 and char- 

 coal. The plants varied considerably in the rapidity and 

 amount of their growth. The difference in fragrance 

 was difficult to estimate on account of the difference in 

 the state of maturity of the various spikes. By making 

 independent estimates on different days as long as all 

 the plants were in bloom and trying to strike an aver- 

 age, the conclusion was reached that the plants grown in 

 the lighter soils had a stronger and more pronounced 

 fragrance than those grown in the heavy clay soils. 

 The amount of fragrance given by wilting flowers on 

 the heavy clav soils is very perceptibly less than that 

 given off by flowers from the lighter soils. In plants 

 grown in a heavy clay loam richly manured, the fra- 

 grance was hardly perceptible and very faint even on 

 wilting. The influence of the different proportions of 

 manure and soil used was not measurable, as the differ- 

 ence, if any, in the strength of the odor given off by 

 the different spikes was too slight to measure. 



Heavy manuring seems to have a deleterious effect on 

 tlie fragrance of Mignonette. Two plots of the same 

 number of plants giowiiii,' in a solid bed were taken. 

 One was manured weekly with liquid manure; the other 

 was left unmanured. The manured plants made more 

 growth and produced less but larger flowers than the 

 unmanured plants. As long as the manuring was con- 

 tinued, the unmanured plot was the most fragrant. After 

 discontinuing manuring for two weeks, the difference 

 became imperceptible and ultimately tlie plot which had 

 been manured became more fragrant than tlie un- 

 manured plot. The plants in the unmanured plot were 

 first to bloom. 



It has been asserted that Mignonette is most fragrant 

 when grown at a low temperature, it being a plant 

 which loves a cool atmosphere. In order to test the 

 effect of temperature on the fragrance of Mignonette, 

 plants of the same varieties were grown in houses 

 whose mean temperature was .')0° P., 05° F. and 75° F. 

 The plants had the same soil. Those in the house 



whose temperature was 50° were grown in flats and 

 benches, while those in the other two houses were 

 grown in 5-inch pots. All were sown November 10. 

 Those in house of 75° germinated two days ahead of 

 those in house of G5° and three days ahead of house of 

 50°. In relative amounts of growth the plants stood as 

 follows (May 15) : Hot house, first; cold house, second; 

 medium, third. But in fragrance they stood as fol- 

 lows: Medium house, first; hot, second; cold, third,— 

 until the outside temperature became high enough to 

 raise the temperature of the cool house to that of the 

 medium house (steam being off), when the plants in 

 the cool house began to equal if not surpass those of 

 the medium house in fragrance. At certain stages of 

 the spike-development, the fragrance seemed stronger 

 in the hot house than in the medium house, but did not 

 last nearly as long as iu the medium house. The cool 

 house surpassed both in lasting power of the fragrance, 

 due to the spike lasting longer and not volatilizing its 

 ethei'eal oils so fast. The fact that the plants grown in 

 the cool house were less fragrant at first than those 

 grown in the warmer houses brought up the question 

 whether this difference in fragrance was permanent or 

 temporary and dependent on the temperature in which 

 the plant was blooming at the time. Plants were taken 

 from the cool house to the temperate (05°) house and 

 left there for some time, with the result that after a 

 time no diiference in the fragrance between the cool 

 house plants and those grown in the medium house 

 could be detected, although there was a difference at 

 first. Plants taken from the temperate house into the 

 cool house, on the other hand, apparently did not lose 

 their fragrance until the old spikes had been replaced 

 by new ones. From these two results it would appear 

 that the influence of temperature is not permanent 

 either as far as the flowers that came immediately under 

 the temperature influence is concerned or those flowers 

 that are not yet developed. But the temporary influence 

 of temperature is of longer duration in the case of 

 flowers taken from a warm house into a cool house 

 than from a cool house into a warm house. The differ- 

 ence in odor between plants grown in a warm and a 

 cool house is probably due to the more ready volatiliza- 

 tion of the ethereal oils in a warm temperature. This 

 volatilization, when once set up, is probably less easily 

 checked or accelerated above a normal rate, whatever 

 that rate may be; hence the tardiness of the plants to 

 react with the cooler temperature. 



R. L. JUNGHANNS. 



REST HARROW. Ononis rotmidi folia. 



RESTRfiPIA (Joseph Emanuel Restrep, a student of 

 natural history in the tropics). Orchidctcece. A genus 

 of very interesting little plants, allied to Masdavallia 

 and not unlike that genus in habit and appearance. 

 The stems are tufted on creeping rhizomes, each bear- 

 ing a single leaf and clothed below with scales. The 

 flower-stems appear from the axil of the leaves. They 

 are perennial, producing flowers for several years in 

 succession. Dorsal sepal free, ending in a filiform, 

 clavate tail; lateral sepals united into a broad blade, 

 bifid only at the apex; petals like the dorsal sepal, but 

 smaller; labellum oblong or ovate, often with 2 small 

 teeth near the base. About 12 species, few of which are 

 cultivated for their curious flowers. They are easily 

 grown at a temperature suited for cool Odontoglossums 

 (40-55°). They thrive well planted in a mixture of peat 

 and sphagnum in baskets, which are usually suspended 

 near the glass. They have no definite resting period, 

 but do not require as large a quantity of water in win- 

 ter as during their most active growth. Pot moder- 

 ately firm, and rest in a cool house. 



antennifera, HBK. Stems slender, clustered, 4-6 in. 

 high, clotlied with [imbricated scales, and bearing one 

 (rarely more) ovate cordate petioled leaf : peduncle 

 from the axil of the leaf, slender, 1-fld.: dorsal sepal 

 1>2 in. long, lanceolate, tapering into a slender clavate 

 tail, yellow, with purple lines and a purple tip; lateral 

 sepals united into an oblong blade 2-lobed at the tip, 

 yellow, marked with red-purple dots; petals small, an- 

 tenna-like, purple at the tip. Nov. -Feb. Colombia, 

 Venezuela. B.M. 0288. 1.11.10:001. A. F. 6:031. 



