3506 



WARDIAN CASE 



WASHINGTONIA 



WARDIAN CASE. A nearly air-tight case with 

 glass sides and top, used for transporting growing 

 plants on long sea voyages, invented about 1836 by 

 N. B. Ward, who wrote a book of ninety-five pages 

 "On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases," 

 published at London in 1842. It provides the best and 

 safest method of transporting potted and living plants 

 across the ocean, as it insures the necessary light, pro- 

 tects the plants from salt spray and foul gases, and 

 requires a minimum of care, as the plants need no 

 watering. Such cases maintain nearly uniform con- 

 ditions of temperature, moisture, and atmosphere. 

 Similar cases are used in greenhouses for growing 

 filmy ferns, dwarf foliage plants, and other small 

 specimens that require a very moist and close atmo- 

 sphere and invariable conditions. 



WARPURIA (named after G. Warpur, who collected 

 the genus). Acanthacese. Low perennial greenhouse 

 herb, branching from the base: Ivs. opposite, approxi- 

 mate, entire or nearly so: fls. minute, white, in dense 

 many-fid, cymes, head-like, long-peduncled, collected 

 in the axils; calyx hyaline, 5-parted, segms. narrow, 

 posterior 3 distinct nearly to their base, anterior 2 con- 



3996. Warscewiczella discolor. ( X M) 



nate to their middle; corolla-tube rather cylindrical, 

 limb minute, lobes 5, rotundate; stamens 4; disk 

 annular; ovary 2-celled, cells 2-ovuled: caps, oblong, the 

 upper third contracted into a beak. One species, 

 Madagascar. 



clandestina, Stapf. Plant about 4-5 in. high, pilose: 

 st: short, prostrate or ascending: Ivs. petioled, oblong 

 or oblong-lanceolate, 2J^-3 x %-lJ4 in-, acute or suba- 

 cute at both ends: peduncles declinate, densely canes- 

 cent; head J^-l in. diam., white-pilose: calyx-segms. 

 triangular-subulate from the base; corolla white, limb 

 minute. Madagascar. 



WARREA (named for Frederick Warre, who dis- 

 covered the first species in Brazil) . Orchidacese. Plants 

 with the habit of small forms of Phaius. Lvs. few, long, 

 plicate: scape tall, bracted, bearing a raceme of termi- 

 nal showy fls. : sepals and petals subequal, concave, the 



lateral sepals united with the base of the column; label- 

 lum not spurred, united, with the base of the column, 

 undivided, concave, with longitudinal ridges; column 

 without appendages; pollinia 4, with a narrow stipe. 

 Two species, Peru and Colombia. They require the 

 same treatment as phaius. 



bidentata, Lindl. (W. Lindeniana, Henfr.). Label- 

 lum regular, slit at the end; ridges convex, the central 

 ones thinner and deeper: bracts one-fourth as long as the 

 pedicels. Sept. Venezuela and Colombia. A.F. 6:655. 



W. cyanea, Lindl.=Aganisia cyanea. 



HEINRICH HASSELBRING. 



WARSCEWICZELLA (from J. von Warscewicz, a 

 Pole, collected in S. Amer. for Van Houtte; died 1866 

 in Cracow) . Orchidacex. Orchids suitable for a cool- 

 house. Fls. solitary, large, on a peduncle; sepals and 

 petals similar, the lateral sepals forming a chin; lip 

 jointed to the foot of the column, 2-5-lobed, with erect 

 side lobes; and a transverse plate free from but lying 

 upon the middle lobe; pollina 4. About 10 species, 

 from Costa Rica to Colombia and Peru. By some 

 included in Zygopetalum. 



discolor, Reichb. f. (Wdrrea discolor, Lindl. Zygo- 

 petalum discolor, Reichb. f.). Fig. 3996. Lvs. narrowly 

 lanceolate, jointed, 9 in. long: scapes 1-fld., shorter 

 than the Ivs.: sepals spreading, lanceolate, white; 

 petals shorter, ovate, white with a tinge of purple, half- 

 spreading; labellum large, broadly obovate, somewhat 

 convolute, white, changing to deep purple toward the 

 disk, and having a whitish or yellowish crest. Cent. 

 Amer. B.M. 4830. 



Wendlandii, Hort. (Zygopetalum Wendlandii, Reichb. 

 f.). Lvs. tufted, lanceolate: fls. 4-5 in. across, solitary, 

 on a scape 3-^4 in. long; sepals and petals lanceolate, 

 somewhat twisted, greenish white; labellum ovate, cor- 

 date, undulate, white, streaked and spotted with violet- 

 purple ; apex revolute, crest semi-circular, violet-purple. 



W. aromdtica is offered by Lager & Hurrell. Apparently little 

 known. Described as having white fls., with an azure lip, white- 

 bordered. Said to come from Costa Rica. 



GEORGE V. NASH. 



WASHINGTONIA (named for George Washington). 

 Palmaceas, tribe Corypheie. Tall North American palms, 

 making noble specimens for planting in California and 

 similar regions. 



Trunks clothed above with remains of the sheaths and 

 petioles: Ivs. terminal, ample, spreading, orbicular, 

 flabellately plicate, lobed nearly to the middle; segms. 

 induplicate, filamentous on the margins; rachis short; 

 ligule large, appressed; petiole long, stout, plano-con- 

 vex, very spiny along the edges: spadices long, copi- 

 ously paniculately branched, glabrous : branches slender, 

 flexuous; spathes long membranous, split, glabrous: fls. 

 white : fr. small, ellipsoid, black drupe, with a thin and 

 sweetish rather dry pulp; seed brown, oblong to 

 oblong-ovate, flattened, excavated or wrinkled on the 

 raphal face. Species 3, now recognized, Ariz., S. Calif., 

 and Mex. 



Probably the oldest use of the generic name Wash- 

 ingtonia is by Rafinesque in 1818 for the umbelliferous 

 plants commonly known as Osmorrhiza; it was also 

 once proposed for the Sequoias; and the name Neo- 

 washingtonia has been advanced for these palms. How- 

 ever, the use of Washingtonia for the palm is too well 

 established to warrant the change. Parish, who has 

 recently studied these palms, retains the name Wash- 

 ingtonia as the only tenable one, discarding the name 

 Washingtonia when applied to the sequoias and also 

 when used for the osmorrhizas on what he considers to 

 be sound nomenclatorial grounds (Bot. Gaz. 44, pp. 

 408-434, 1907). His systematic treatment of the genus 

 is followed in the present account. 



The washingtonia that is best known in the wild is 

 W. filifera var. robusta. The finest grove occupies the 

 narrow palm canon for a mile or more, 22 miles east of 



