664 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[D: 



a deep black, and has the same texture as a bat's 

 wing, and the sepals all curl upwards at the tip. 



Okchids in the Open Air in Scotland. 

 On June 1 I turned out about 200 cool Orchids, 

 Masdevallias and Odontoglossums, placing them 

 along the edge of a burn flowing through a wooded 

 glen ; there they remained till the middle of Sep- 

 tember, getting occasionally watered when too dry. 

 All did very well, some even flowering, and the 

 Masdevallia blooms were very fine. They were then 

 brought in to a frame, and are now making very 

 strong growths in the Odontoglossum-house. I 

 found out that in this cold climate they do not do 

 so well when placed on or near the ground, and next 

 year I shall place them on planks suspended between 

 the Fir trees. Walter T. Ogilvy, Arndean, Dollar, N.B, 



DISA LACEKA, Sw., 



AND VAB. MITLTIFIDA, N. E. Br. (n. VAR.). 



The blue-flowered species of the genus Disa have 

 long been a desire with the European Orchid growers, 

 but hitherto very little success appears to have 

 attended their importation ; this year, however, some 

 of the imported plants have flowered ; one has been 

 figured in the Journal of Horticulture and, Cottage 

 Gardener for September 6, 1888, p. 220, fig. 24, under 

 the name of Disa lacera ; of another, an illustration 

 is given accompanying this (fig, 93), which flowered 

 in the Botanic Garden, Trinity College, Dublin, and 

 was noticed in this volume on p. 215 ; it was sent by 

 Mr. F. W. Burbidge, as Disa graminifolia. A third 

 flowered with Mr. F. G. Tautz, under the name of D. 

 graminifolia ; a fourth plant has just flowered at the 

 Koyal Gardens, Kew ; and has been figured for the 

 Botanical Magazine, and others, of which I have no 

 knowledge, may have flowered elsewhere. 



It is not easy to form an opinion as to what these 

 four plants should be called ; for if all of them 

 were placed side by side when in flower, I think 

 nearly every gardener would at least consider them 

 to be four distinct varieties, for on comparing 

 the figure here given with that in the Journal of 

 Horticulture, striking differences at once become 

 apparent. The plant which flowered at Kew is more 

 like that here figured (which appears to me to have 

 lost its freshness when it was drawn, as the flowers 

 seem to ^have began to close up), but has a less 

 deeply fringed lip, and a more angular hook to the 

 apex of the petals ; that which Mr. Tautz flowered 

 differs from all in having the lip entire, or with a 

 slight crenation at the apex only, and a longer hook to 

 the apex of the petals. Of the Journal of Horticulture 

 plant I have seen no specimen, so will leave that 

 out of the question ; but the other three, it is 

 quite clear, must either be considered as distinct 

 species, or varieties of one species. I incline to 

 the latter view, and propose to refer them to Disa 

 lacera, Swartz. Mr. Bolus, however, who has also 

 seen them, and whose knowledge of South African 

 Orchids in a living state is unrivalled, is inclined to 

 refer those with the fringed lip to D. purpurascens, 

 Bolus, and that with the entire lip to D. lacera, as 

 he considers the lip of South African Orchids as 

 being comparatively constant in character and less 

 variable than the petals. In this I cannot agree 

 with him, as D. purpurascens has a differently shaped 

 flower, and the apical portion of the petals is hatchet- 

 shaped, whilst in these three it is hooked, as it is in 

 D. lacera, and although the hook varies considerably 

 in length, and the abruptness with which it is bent 

 down, it makes no approach to the squarish or some- 

 what hatchet-shaped termination of the petals of D. 

 purpurascens ; and considering how variable the lip 

 often is, even among South African Orchids — as, for 

 example, in Disa spathulata — and as the general 

 appearance of the plants, the size of the flowers, and 

 the hooked petals, all accord with the plant con- 

 sidered by Lindley to be the Disa lacera of Swartz, 

 I prefer to place them as varieties of that species. 



In the original description of D. lacera given by 

 Swartz, there is no mention made of the colour of 



the flowers, but Thunberg describes them as whitish, 

 which certainly does not agree with the colour of 

 the plant now understood as D. lacera ; but Swartz 

 described from a specimen or specimens collected by 

 Sparrmann, and Thunberg may either have described 

 a different plant, or conjectured the colour from the 

 dried specimens ; it is impossible to decide which, 

 as there is no specimen now existing of D. lacera in 

 the herbaria of Swartz and Thunberg, both of which 

 I have had the opportunity of examining. [The 



Fig. 93.— disa iacera vah. multifida. 



description of Swartz, however, so far as it goes, 

 so well agrees with the plant now called D. lacera, 

 that I see no reason why that name should not be 

 maintained for it. 



Until we know more about these plants I think it 

 best not to give them a too prolific nomenclature, 

 and am disposed to group all the forms of D. lacera 

 that I have seen, living and dried, in the following 

 manner : — I would call all those specimens which 

 have lip entire, or crenate, or fringed at the apex 

 only, Disa lacera ; and all those that have the lip 

 more or less deeply fringed all round I propose to 

 call Disa lacera var. multifida, regarding the hooked 



petals as the character binding all these together. 

 The following are briefly the characters : — 



D. lacera, Swartz. — Dorsal sepal helmet-shaped, 

 with a broadly ovate or triangular-ovate opening, 

 sometimes apiculate at the apex, somewhat abruptly 

 contracted behind into a conical spur i — \ inch long, 

 which makes a very obtuse angle with the back of 

 the sepal. Lateral sepals obliquely oblong, acute or 

 sub-obtuse, concave (somewhat boat-shaped), directed 

 forward and a little spreading. Petals with a broad 

 oblong or elliptic oblong basal lobe or auricle, and a 

 linear, very abruptly hooked, acute apical portion 

 the hook varying in length and angle of deflection 

 Lip oblong, lacerate or fringed at the apex only, or 

 nearly or quite entire. 



Var. multifida, N. E. Br. (fig. 93).— Lip oblong- 

 ovate, fringed all round from base to apex. (See 

 small figure at left-hand corner.) 



The colour in both forms is of a rather bright 

 bluish-purple in all parts, but not of an uniform tint 

 throughout ; in the plant here figured the fringe of 

 the lip was of a reddish-violet colour. 



The true Disa graminifolia, I believe, has not yet 

 flowered in this country — at least, I find no record of 

 it ; since, if it had, there can be little doubt, 

 that it would have been figured, as from all I can 

 learn, its brilliancy of colour far surpasses that of the 

 other blue species, and would be sure to have been 

 written about. 



P.S. — Since writing the above I have received, 

 through the kindness of the Editor, another flower, 

 grown by Mr. Cummins, of Hackbridge. This flower 

 only confirms my opinion that the plants here com- 

 mented upon are quite distinct from D. purpuras- 

 cens, which is very similar indeed to D. gramini- 

 folia, but flowers at a different season. Mr. Cummins' 

 flower has a nearly entire lip, like that of the 

 flowers received from Mr. Tautz 's collection, but the 

 petals differ from those of all the other flowers 

 seen, in having the hooked portion much broader, 

 somewhat rectangular, and 3 — 4 toothed in front. 

 The colour of this flower also differs a little from 

 that of the others I have seen, the dorsal sepal being 

 bluish-purple, the lateral sepals blue, and the lip 

 reddish-purple ; the petals are bluish-purple, as in 

 the other flowers. From what I have seen of Disa 

 lacera, living and dried, I consider it to be an exceed- 

 ingly variable species as to lip, petals, and colour ; 

 but at the same time it appears to me readily dis- 

 tinguished from D. graminifolia and D. purpurascens 

 by the bluish-purple, more or less hooked petals, for 

 in those two species the petals have a yellowish- 

 green hatchet-shaped apex. N. E. Brown, Herbarium, 

 Kew. 



[For the sake of comparison, and also to show 

 the adaptability of Disa for pot culture, we give (at 

 fig. 94) Disa grandiflora, which was grown by Mr. 

 W. Denning, Lord Londesborough's gardener at 

 Norbiton, and figured in the Gardeners' Chronicle for 

 April 3, 1875. The plant was rather more than 

 3 feet in height. Ed.] 



BEDDING VIOLAS, OLD AND 



NEW. 



It is many years, probably, since bedding Violas 

 generally have been so well suited as during the now 

 past cold, sunless, rainy summer of 188S. If many 

 things in the garden have signally failed, these, on 

 the other hand, have been equally successful in pro- 

 ducing their bright pleasing flowers in greater pro- 

 fusion than ever. If I rightly remember, it was a 

 more than usually wet summer in 1879, and Violas 

 did splendidly that year — at least, with me in 

 Cheshire. But saying this I do not wish it to be 

 understood that these charming bedding plants do 

 well only in wet seasons — far from it; I merely 

 mention it as a fact that they do better than in 

 exceptionally dry seasons. What these Violas really 

 delight in is warm, showery weather, and when ths 

 is not forthcoming, copious waterings should be 

 given them late in the evening. In northern dis- 

 tricts this is hardly needed, but in southern counties, 

 to ensure their doing well in all sorts of weather, 

 special treatment must be given them, 



