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J HE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE, 

 Vol. III., Third Series. JAN. to JUNE, 1888, 

 W. RICHARDS. 41, Wellington Street. Strand. W.C. 



APPOINTMENTS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. 



M EETINGS. 



Deo. 10— Chambre Syndicale of Ghent. 



i Royal Horticultural Society : Scien- 

 Deo. 11-' titic, Fruit and Floral Com- 



( mittees. 



SALES. 



/ Dutch Bulbs, at Stevens' Rooms. 



1 Dutch Bulbs, at Protheroe & Morris ' 



I Booms. 



| Clearance of the whole of the Nut- 

 Dec 10'' ser y Stock and Greenhouse Plants, 

 at the Hadley Nursery, Barnet, 

 and Leasehold of Nursery (six 

 days) by Protheroe & Morris. 

 Dutch Bulbs, Lily of the Valley 

 Roots, &c, at Smail's Rooms. 



f Established and Imported Orchids 



| at Protheroe & Morris' Rooms. 

 TUESDAY, Dec. 11 ■{ Roses, Greenhouse Plants, Bulbs, 



i Sec, at the City Auction Rooms, 



\ by Protheroe & Morris. 



(Roses, Fruit Trees, Shrubs, Bulbs, 

 &c, at Stevens' Rooms. 

 15,000 Lilium auratum and other 

 Bulbs and Plants, at Protheroe 

 & Morris' Rooms. 

 Dutch Bulbs, Lily of the Valley, 

 and Roses, at Smail's Rooms. 

 Orchids in Flower, 5000 Lilium 

 auratum, &c, at Stevens' Rooms. 

 Dutch Bulbs, at Protheroe & Morris' 

 Rooms. 



/"Imported and Established Orchids, 

 T)tt m) a * Brotheroe & Morris' Rooms. 

 _*_,_. it<, Lilium auratum, Dutch Bulbs, 



{_ Roses, &c, at Smail's Rooms, 



THURSDAY, Deo 



.13J. 



Cape Orchids. 



Some three years sinoe Mr. N. E. 



Brown published in our columns 

 a notice on the terrestrial Orchids of the Cape of 

 Good Hope (see Gard. Chron., August 22, 1885), 

 which excited some attention among orchidists. 

 Mr. Brown's article was avowedly based, to a 

 considerable extent, upon the notes of Mr. Harry 

 Bolus — a hard-working and eminent botanist 

 resident at Cape Town, and specially conversant 

 with the most interesting flora of that peninsula. 

 Since the time to which we refer Mr. Bolus has 

 contributed various articles to the Linnean 

 Society, and now we have before us a very valu- 

 able work on the Orchids of the Cape Peninsula, 

 and which is desoribed as an offprint from the 

 Transactions of the South African Philosophical 

 Society. The work in question is modestly de- 

 nominated an attempt to describe "the Orchids 

 growing on the peninsula of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, to give their names and synonyms, to 

 arrange them as far as possible in groups, to 

 adduce the stations where they have been found, 

 and their further distribution so far as known. 

 To this is added a list of collectors, and of books 

 and papers already published upon the subject of 

 South African Orchidology." 



The Cape peninsula is as remarkable for the 

 singularity as for the beauty of its flora. The 

 Cape Heaths, the Proteads, are known and ap- 

 preciated among horticulturists, while they are 

 botanically interesting in that they are for the 

 .most part peculiar to the Cape, g,nd not found 



elsewhere. In the corresponding corner of the 

 Australian continent, however, occurs a flora 

 equally characterised by singularity and beauty. 

 Proteads and Restios abound as at the Cape, 

 but while the larger groups or genera are the 

 same the species are all different, while the plaoe 

 that the Heaths ocoupy at the Cape is filled by 

 the nearly allied yet quite distinot Epaorids of 

 Australia. We cannot pursue the subjeot further 

 now, but we have probably said enough to indi- 

 oate one of the reasons why the Cape flora is so 

 interesting. Botanists belong to that group of 

 inquisitive people who want to " know the 

 reason why," and, of course, the near relation- 

 ship, coupled with the absolute distinctness of 

 the two floras above-mentioned, offers a problem 

 of no little interest, the solution of which is 

 probably to be found in the original land-con- 

 neotion of the two countries now so widely 

 separated. If this were so the original flora 

 was probably different from both those now 

 existing, and divergences have taken place sub- 

 sequently. The collection and investigation of 

 evidence in support or refutation of these hypo- 

 theses necessarily adds largely to our knowledge, 

 and on this account may appease the hunger 

 for facts of those people who complacently 

 prefer an ounce of fact to a ton of theory, 

 ignoring the truth that reasonable speculations 

 are eminently serviceable in bringing to light 

 faots which, but for their assistance, would 

 remain latent. Turning, however, to Mr. Bolus' 

 book we find the Cape peninsula described as — 



" A tract of land about 40 miles long, varying in 

 width from about 3 to 11 miles, and connected with 

 the continent by a broad and low sandy isthmus, 

 11 miles wide. In area it is rather larger than the 

 Isle of Wight. A great part of its surface is occu- 

 pied by a central mountain range, running north and 

 south from Table Mountain, which attains an eleva- 

 tion of 3562 feet, to the southern extremity at Cape 

 Point. . . . The exposed rocks are, for the most 

 part, sandstone on the mountains, with patches of 

 the underlying clay slate, and also granite ; on the 

 low ground are sandy downs of considerable extent. 

 The climate is temperate, the mean annual tempera- 

 ture 61° E. Frosts on the low ground are rare, and 

 even on the mountain-tops snow is an unusual occur- 

 rence, and never lies for more than a few hours. The 

 annual average rainfall varies in different localities 

 from 23 to about 60 inches, and two-thirds of it falls 

 during the winter months of May, June, July, and 

 August, the warmth of the summer months being 

 tempered by the prevalent southerly winds of that 

 season. In many respects the climate resembles 

 that of the Riviera. 



" The steep ravines of the mountains are filled 

 with indigenous shrubs or trees, while their sides 

 are in many places dotted with the Silver Tree 

 (Leucadendron argenteum) ; at their feet are scat- 

 tered bu3hes or copses of imported Pines and Oak, 

 all else, including the sandy downs of the isthmus, is 

 covered with a Heath-like growth of small dull- 

 coloured shrublets, from 1 to 3 feet in height, yet not 

 closely, but interspersed with a great variety of herbs, 

 Restiacea grasses and bulbous plants. Stretches of 

 grasses or grass-like plants, occur in a few places, 

 where the bushes by continued burning and grazing 

 have been eradicated, but are not common ; surface 

 water, except for a few months of the rainy season, is 

 deficient, and aquatic plants, though not absolutely 

 wanting, are not abundant in species or individuals." 



We cite the foregoing paragraph as sup- 

 plying cultivators with some details which 

 may be of value to them. Mr. Bolus pursues 

 his subject by giving special details with reference 

 to the number and distribution of Orchids in the 

 peninsula, and the resemblances or differences to 

 be discovered between the Cape Orchids and those 

 of Chili and South-west Australia. The total, 



like the proportional number of Orchids in this 

 corner of South-west Africa, is very large and 

 only surpassed by that of some parts of Australia. 



Most of the 102 speoies are confined to the 

 mountains or to the flats, as the low sandy downs 

 of the isthmus are termed. The majority of the 

 speoies flower in early spring and summer. 



An interesting appendix to this portion of the 

 introduction consists in a list of the chief col- 

 lectors on the Cape peninsula, with brief biogra- 

 phical details. This is followed by a correponding 

 list of botanical writers who have treated of 

 Cape Orchids. The bulk of the volume comprises 

 a detailed systematic account of the ten genera 

 and 102 species, founded upon actual comparative 

 investigation of the living plants, and therefore 

 most valuable to the student, for whose con- 

 venience also analytical keys are added. 



Of Satyrium eighteen species are enumerated, 

 while it may surprise some Orchid lovers to hear 

 that Disa comprises no fewer than forty-six species, 

 natives of this particular region. Of these the 

 best known and the most beautiful is the species 

 here called, in compliance with the law of priority, 

 D. uniflora, but which is better known in gardens as 

 D. grandiflora (fig. 94). This plant grows along the 

 margins of streams (which frequently become dry 

 in summer), on Table Mountain, at an elevation of 

 from 1100 to 3300 feet, flowering from January 

 to March. As this plant is such a universal 

 favourite the following particulars, given by 

 Mr. Bolus, may be of interest : — 



"This beautiful flower is the object of universal 

 admiration, and the name which has been given to 

 it — ' The Pride "of Table Mountain ' — indicates the 

 honour in which it held. It is, indeed, the queen of 

 terrestrial Orchids in the Southern Hemisphere, as 

 Cypripedium spectabile may be said to reign, though 

 with less magnificence, in the Northern. The first 

 mention hitherto discovered of this plant is in the 

 Historia Plantarum of our old English botanist, 

 John Eat, in the third volume of which, published 

 in 1704, p. 586, it is enumerated as ' Orchis africana 

 flore singulari herbaceo, D. Oltjenland, Mus. Pet. 

 280,' and, after a brief description, Rat adds that he 

 received a dried specimen from D. Petivee, amongst 

 other rare plants sent by D. Oldenland. This, 

 however, was before the time of Linnjsus. The first 

 botanist to describe and publish it under the Lin- 

 nean binomial system as Disa uniflora was Beegics 

 in 1767. 



"LiJOfy'EUS the younger, with the laxer notions 

 which prevailed in his day in regard to the law 

 of priority of nomenclature, thinking that Bee- 

 gius' name was inappropriate (since the plant 

 has usually more than one flower) changed 

 the name to Disa grandiflora. By the latter name 

 the species has been so long and widely known, 

 that to revert to the older one will cause inconveni- 

 ence for a time. But Beegius not merely established 

 the species ; he also founded the genus upon this 

 species, which has always been recognised ; and, be- 

 sides, gave an adequate figure, which left no sufficient 

 reason for disregarding his name. Botanists are 

 bound to admit such a claim, even at the cost of in- 

 convenience. 



" The earliest record of the flowering of this plant 

 in Europe appears to have been in the Botanical 

 Register for 1825, when it was figured from life. It 

 is still abundant on Table Mountain, although of 

 late years large quantities of the tubers have been 

 annually exported to Europe, and much needless 

 destruction arising from wasteful gathering by un- 

 skilled hands resulted ; but the summit of the 

 mountains being Crown land, the Government has 

 recently intervened and restricted the removal of 

 tubers within reasonable limits; so that, if the 

 supervision be continued, there will be little reason 

 to fear the extinction of this truly noble species." 



Among other species of Disa are D. megaceras, 

 the macrantha of gardens; the rose-coloured 



