44 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



hibited, had three rows in his forcing house. There is a great 

 demand for forced lilac flowers. In Paris it is considered difficult 

 to produce them, and the same with the lily of the valley. Lilacs 

 require a very high temperature and darkness to bring them out 

 earl}''. 



The Chairman said there were on the table some leaves of the 

 white spotted Bichardia, and asked whether it flowered as freely 

 as the plain variety, commonly known as the calla. 



Mr. Hovey had not found it as vigorous and productive of 

 flowers as the common calla. It was valuable for planting out as 

 a variegated foliage plant in summer. It was a summer bloomer, 

 though not geuerall}^ known as such. It might be taken up in 

 autumn and treated like the dahlia, or it could be kept on growing 

 in the greenhouse. 



John B. Moore, who exhibited the RicJiardia, said that the 

 flowers were about half as large as those of the common species, 

 with purple centres. Reasonably strong bulbs grew pretty well 

 with him- He was not aware that it was a summer bloomer, and 

 had treated it just as he would a common calla, and they flowered 

 freely. He turned them out of the pots and planted in a dry soil 

 in the garden, and thought they did better than when dried in 

 the pot. 



Mr. Hovey said that the spotted variety has a greater tendency 

 to rest than the plain. Like many other bulbs, it may either be 

 kept in bloom or dried off. 



Edward S. Rand, Jr. was called on for some information con- 

 cerning the orchids exhibited by himself and others. The first 

 of these was Cattleya amethystoglossn, and Mr. Rand said that this 

 genus is one of the easiest grown, while the fiowers are of brilliant 

 color, many of them delightfully fragrant, and the plants of neat 

 and compact habit. The species on exhibition is probably of Bra- 

 zilian origin and had never before been shown here. It sends up 

 a flower spike two feet or more in height ; the flowers are large, of 

 a rosy purple, spotted with dark purple and the lip of the same 

 color. The culture which it requires is to have heat while in 

 growth, to be kept rather dry, and to avoid wetting the leaves, 

 never syringing. jSaccohibiinn gigcmtenm, an East Indian species, 

 was also exhibited by Mr. Rand, the plant having two of its dense. 



