November 10, 1888.] 



TBE GAftbENEKS' CBBOtilCLE. 



533 



time CypripediuniNinderianum, C. Kothschildianuiii, 

 and C. Elliottianum ! H. G. Bchb.f. 



CATTLEYA LABIATA WaRSCEWICZII ROCHELLENal>. 



n. far. ; or, shorter, Cattleya eochellensis. 



When my good friend, the late Joseph von Wars- 

 cewicz, returned from his second voyage to tropical 

 America in November, 1853, he told me his best plant 

 was a new Cattleya, bearing 5 — 10 flowers on one 

 raceme, with very tall bulbs. I have in my herba- 

 rium my friend's original treasure. He complains of 

 the impossibility of doing justice to the colours, 

 alluding to the poorness of his colour-box. The 

 plant was discovered in the province of Medellin, at 

 the height of 6000—8000 feet. My forty-seven 

 typical flowers are so well preserved that they even 

 now show the superior disc of the lip to have a broad 

 yellow area. The specimen introduced into the 

 trade latterly by Director Linden, gathered by the 

 late Benito Roezl, is, in my opinion, a sub-variety of 

 this, having two distinct spots on the disc in lieu of 

 the confluent ones. 



My friend, Joseph von Warscewicz, declared Catt- 

 leyas to be the greatest treasures of his razzias. 

 During the first journey he discovered Cattleya Dowi- 

 ana (his Cattleya Lawrenceana, dedicated to his well- 

 wisher, Mrs. Lawrence, of Ealing), and on his second 

 journey Cattleya Warscewiezii. We cannot under- 

 stand now-a-days, how it was possible that his im- 

 ported Cattleyas did not flower. As to Cattleya 

 Lawrenceana, I saw small plants at Berlin. Mr. 

 Mathieu and Mr. Naner (then having his excellent 

 head gardener, Mr. Gireoud, now of Sagon), had little 

 pieces which, by the way, died after six or ten years. 

 As to Cattleya Warscewiezii, I never heard of a living 

 plant imported by J. de Warscewicz : hence I suppose 

 it was lost in the Magdalena River, with so many 

 other fine plants, the steamer having been wrecked. 

 And now I have before me a glorious specimen 

 from Messrs. Liebrecht & Wadley, florists and nur- 

 serymen, 409, Fifth Avenue, Rose Hill Nurseries, 

 New Rochelle, New York, through the hands of my 

 countryman, Professor Demcker, of Hoboken, who is 

 so enthusiastic in spreading the love for natural history 

 in the United States. It resembles Cattleya Warsce- 

 wiezii, as there is a light yellow confluent hue (not two 

 eyes) on the upper part of the disc. There is also 

 an exceedingly light, evanescent purplish hue on the 

 anterior disc of the lip ; with these exceptions all the 

 flower before me is snow-white. This beautiful 

 plant attracted the admiration of all the specialists ; 

 but it disappeared from the botanical world to make 

 a fresh dSbut in the celebrated collection of Mr. 

 Frederick L. Ames, of North Easton, Massachusetts, 

 where Mr. Joseph Godseft', of the Sanderian firm, 

 was so fortunate as to see it in full flower. It is to 

 be hoped that the stock of Cattleya Warscewiezii of 

 Messrs. Liebrecht & Wadley may contain more such 

 vestal beauties, though from a remark in one of their 

 letters, I conclude they are not very hopeful as to 

 this ; all the better, then, for Mr. Frederick Ames, 

 as, most probably, no collector is free from the worthy 

 ambition of possessing some unique treasure — and 

 this is one ! H. G. Bchb.f. 



L.TXIA EUTERPE X , tl. kt/b. 



This is a new and very beautiful hybrid, raised 

 by Mr. Seden, and which has just flowered in the 

 establishment of Messrs. Veitch & Sons, Chelsea, 

 from whom I received it. It was raised from La-lia 

 pumila Dayana, fertilised with the pollen of L. 

 crispa, the seed having been sown in 1881. The 

 following note has been supplied to me by Mr. Kent 

 as to the present strength of the plant : — " Six 

 somewhat slender stems, 2 — 4 inches long, mono- 

 phyllous. Leaves leathery, rigid, narrow, oblong- 

 obtuse, 6 — 7 inches long." The flower measures 

 3} inches in expanse, the sepals narrowly lanceolate, 

 acute ; petals twice as broad, and more obtuse, 

 somewhat crisped ; all the segments of a bright rosy- 

 lilac. Lip somewhat three-lobed, the front lobe 

 beautifully crisped, crimson-purple, with a little 

 white variegation, and the veins of a deeper colour 

 than the rest, giving a brilliant effect. The side- 



lobes are also deep crimson-purple at their apex, 

 while a band of the same colour extends down the 

 centre of the lip to the base, the rest of the lip being 

 white, with light yellow veins. The front of the 

 column below the. stigma is crimson-purple, but the 

 remainder of the column white. The pollen masses 

 are eight in number, and quite equal, as would be 

 expected from both the parents being typical Lajlias. 

 It is a beautiful addition to the autumn-flowering 

 group, the very decided colouring of the lip forming 

 a decided contrast with the lighter-coloured sepals 

 and petals. B. A. Bolfe. 



Dexdrofhylax Fawcetti, Bolfe, a. sp. 

 This remarkable and not less beautiful Orchid is 

 now flowering in the Kew collection, and for the 

 first time. Imagine a tuft of roots, long, flexuose, 

 cylindrical, and greenish in colour, spreading in all 

 directions from a very short tuft-like caudex, no 

 leaves whatever, flowers 2 inches in diameter, the 

 large bilobed lip pure white, the lanceolate acute 

 segments of a most delicate greenish-white, and a 

 slender pendulous spur 7 inches long, and you have 

 the new plant ; almost a counterpart of D. funalis, 

 Benth. (the old Angrjecum funale, Lindl., But. May., 

 t. 4295), except some slight differences, and the 



all conscience — Limodorum funale, Sw. ; Epiden- 

 drum funale, Sw. ; GDceoclades funalis, Lindl. ; Tri- 

 chocentrum funale, Lindl. ; and Aeranthus funalis, 

 Kchb. f. B. A. Bolfe. 



Fig. 74.— begoxia davisi. 



gigantic spur, three times at least as long. It was 

 found by Mr. W. Fawcett, F.L.S., Director of the 

 Jamaica Botanic Garden, in the Cayman Islands, 

 West Indies, during his recent trip to investigate 

 the disease which is destroying the Cocoa-nut Palm 

 there. Both living and dried specimens were trans- 

 mitted to Kew during the past summer. Notwith- 

 standing its leafless condition — for the green roots 

 do the work of assimilating nutriment— the plant 

 has thoroughly established itself on a block, and 

 young roots are pushing in all directions. The 

 peduncle is but 2 inches long on this plant, but on 

 a dried one sent home is at least 23 inches, or over 

 ten times as long. It is hardly necessary to say 

 that the plant is dedicated to its discoverer, with 

 the hope that if other such novelties should be lurk- 

 ing in the West Indies, he will let us hear of them. 

 Respecting this small genus there are, beside our 

 novelty, D. hymenantha, Rchb. f., the original 

 species, a native of Cuba, with flowers, including the 

 spur, but half an inch long ; D. Lindenii, Benth., with 

 spur nearly as long as in our present species, but 

 remarkably attenuated, acute lobes to the lip, a 

 native of Cuba and Florida, in the latter locality 

 said to grow on the stem of the Royal Palm ; D. 

 Sallei, Benth., a native of San Domingo ; and D. 

 funalis, Benth., a native of Jamaica. This latter 

 rejoices in the following aliases — quite sufiicient in 



TUBEROUS BEGONIAS.* 



There are a good many florists' flowers culti- 

 vated in our gardens of which wo do not know 

 the origin. We may know the wild species or 

 be able to give more or less exact " guesses at 

 truth " in the matter, but, the exact method 

 pursued by the earliest growers is, but too often, 

 lost in the obscurity of the past. This is more 

 or less true of some of the most popular garden 

 flowers of to-day. The Tulip, the Auricula, the 

 races of double Primroses, the Pink, the Carnation, 

 the double, or Turban Ranunculus, and even double 

 Piconies, and double Roses, seem like Topsey, to 

 " have growed " up into the horticultural horizon, 

 and no one can say to-day how, why or wherefore 

 they sprang into existence. As we have said we can 

 put our fingers pretty correctly on their wild proto- 

 types in some cases, but, even the wisest of us could 

 not stand a very severe cross-examination as to 

 when, where, and why the developments we now ad- 

 mire came into existence. Even among fruits, and 

 vegetables we have in many cases quite lost sight of 

 the original species or prototype, and the common 

 Onion, the most cosmopolitan of all vegetables, may 

 be cited as a case in point. Again as, in some sort 

 analogous to the seemingly accidental or spontaneous 

 cropping up of double flowers, we have those fruits 

 which, like the Zante or Corinth Grape, the Sultana 

 Raisin Grape, the Banana, and in a lesser degree 

 the Piue-apple, and the Mangosteen are most often 

 seedless, and so are and have for many centuries 

 been propagated by vegetative methods, i.e., by 

 cuttings, suckers, or other methods of division 

 rather than by seeds. 



Nowadays, thanks to a more awakened interest 

 and to improved facilities for recording newly accom- 

 plished facts, there are some flowers in our gardens, 

 the origin of which is tolerably well known. The 

 hybrid Nepenthes and Orchids, and the greenhouse 

 Rhododendrons of Veitch stand out clear and definite 

 in this connection. The florists' Pansy slipped 

 into existence years ago in a surreptitious sort 

 of way, and the history of its more modem 

 race or offshoot — the tufted or bedding Viola — ■ 

 might be a great deal clearer than it really is ; 

 but it is quite a relief to think of one of the latest of 

 all the gardener's creations, viz., the tuberous 

 Begonia, since we can confidently trace its origin and 

 development during the past twenty years or more, 

 that is, from the introduction of B. boliviensis, 

 B. Pearcei, B. Veitchii, and one or two other wild 

 species of South America, until we come down to the 

 most recent seedling varieties of Laing and Cannell, 

 or of Lemoine and Crousse. In a word, the tuberous 

 Begonias must be numbered amongst the most 

 remarkable products of our time, so beautiful, so 

 variable in form, and in colour, so easily raised from 

 seeds, and so readily to be grown to perfection with- 

 out much if any artificial heat, that we do not wonder 

 that nurserymen and amateurs alike home made a 

 specialty of such a bright and pleasing race of florist's 

 flowers, nor can we wonder that the proprietors of 

 the Gardeniny World should have so promptly and so 

 well fulfilled a public want in publishing the neat 

 and reliable handbook now before us entitled The 

 Tuberous Begonia, its History and Cultivation — a book 

 that is likely to lend an impetus to the more extended 

 and better cultivation of the flowers, of which it 

 treats in detail and at considerable length. As well 

 pointed out in its pages, these flowers possess a 

 twofold chord of interest for amateurs, and for 

 practical purposes may be divided into two sections, 

 viz., those best adapted for greenhouse or con- 



* The TttberoiLs Begonia, its History ami Cultivation. 

 Illustrated. Edited by B. Wynne, F.R.H.S. London : Gar- 

 dening World Office, 17, Catherine Street, Strand, W.C, 

 Pp. 104 and Index. Price Is. 



