724 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[December 22, 1888. 



moisture occasion in unsheltered fields. But the 

 winter is far milder than in Essex. A Devon- 

 shire gentleman told me that his Peaches and 

 Apricots throve the worse, he thought, for want 

 of a colder winter, which would ensure the com- 

 plete rest of the trees. I think he may be right, 

 for a laird in Orkney told me that the Tamarisk, 

 which forms good seaside hedges on the Sussex 

 coast, is not sufficiently put to rest in Orkney, 

 where the Gulf Stream rarely allows of twenty- 

 four hours frost, and where the little lochs, ex- 

 posed as they are, are seldom covered with ice as 

 thick as a sixpence. 



But you may see at a glance that tender shrubs 

 thrive at Knightshayes, and that the winters must 

 be mild. The house, which is a large one, built 

 by the present owners on an old site, is exceed- 

 ingly well clothed with ornamental shrubs and 

 creepers, which I could not examine with Mr. 

 Peebles, who manages the fine gardens here, and 

 seemed very willing to show me round, till the 

 daylight was almost spent. By dint of straining 

 one's eyes and feeling the foliage, we made out 

 several things, till presently I laid hold of some- 

 thing very prickly, when we both agreed it was 

 time to desist. 



But even in the gathering darkness I 

 could see that the front and sides of the 

 great house were beautifully covered to a con- 

 siderable height — painted, so to speak, in the 

 best possible colours for house walls by the 

 tasteful hand of the planter. I may mention 

 among the wall plants various Magnolias, Myrtles, 

 Bscallonia — always a welcome shrub with the 

 most cheerful bright green leaves — Viburnum 

 Sieboldi, Stauntonia latifolia, and Azara macro- 

 phylla, only two years planted, but 12 feet high 

 and 5 feet across, with leaves bright and glossy, 

 and small pale berries, which I could not dis- 

 tinguish in the dusk. There were specimens of 

 Berberis, common perhaps, but beautiful, and a 

 number of Hoses, some of them with very sharp 

 prickles, I should think! Then another ever- 

 green grows here which is comparatively rare, 

 though I planted it, and had it killed by frost, 

 only forty miles from Middlesex, thirty years 

 ago. I mean that exquisite flowering shrub 

 Desfontainea spinosa, which all should grow who 

 can. 



The demand for flowers at the town house and 

 here was suggested, and the skill of the gar- 

 dener displayed to my eyes by the sight of 500 

 pots of Chrysanthemums, which were then out- 

 doors, to be flowered in the various houses. All 

 the leading sorts are here, especially those which 

 are particularly suitable for decorative purposes. 

 The plants are all in 14-inch pots, and their size 

 and vigour are so great that each pot has been 

 furnished with about twenty-five canes, to which 

 the stems are tied. One of the greenhouses is 

 beautifully decorated with Palms and foliage 

 plants, Adiantums, and two specimens of that 

 most graceful of all trees — if, in deference to 

 Humboldt's opinion, we except the Tree Ferns — 

 the Araucaria excelsa, in full foliage, the lower 

 branches drooping over the pots. Two trees of 

 this species are here in good foliage, though 

 they stood in the drawing-room two months 

 during last winter. 



Mr. Peebles is a great fancier and successful 

 raiser of the Coleus, and has sent out this year 

 two new kinds — 0. majesticus and C. Miss Jane 

 Thomson, a light coloured beauty. Last year 

 he brought out Lady Amory, which is now in Mr. 

 B. S. Williams' catalogue, and he has now half- 

 a-dozen unnamed sorts of different strains, whioh 

 will shortly be consigned to Mr. Williams to be 

 exhibited by him at the meetings of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society. The gorgeous colouring 



of these seedlings is far beyond my powers of 

 description. Who shall name the shades of 

 colour which their leaves present ? 



A plant to arrest the attention, and one which 

 the ancients would have worshipped, stands in 

 one of the houses. It is a three-year-old Alla- 

 manda, which I may describe as columnar in 

 shape, growing in a No. 1 pot, 11 feet high, and 

 loaded with hundreds of the well-known pale 

 soft yellow blossoms of this beautiful climber. 

 In order to keep the plant upright and to give 

 it the form of an Azalea on exhibition its 

 branches have been tied to several stakes set in 

 the pot. 



The vinery is divided into five houses, and 

 among them is a house of Muscats that was 

 a credit to the gardener who grew them. They 

 were in the highest perfection, ripe and ripening, 

 almost every bunch fit to be cut as a specimen, 

 and the number of bunches so great that the 

 cutting of 40 lb. the other day caused no gap in 

 the crop of many hundredweights. The second 

 house contains White Syrian, Golden Queen, 

 and other sorts, three years planted ; and 

 another is remarkable for Muscat canes of this 

 year's growth 20 feet long. 



The second crop of Figs was ripening in one 

 of the houses. Peaches abound here. The 

 houses being wide, they are planted on trellises 

 12 feet apart, and crossing the houses from front 

 to back, so that the sun is always on the fruit. In 

 the case of one tree ten Peaches were touched 

 by the extended fingers in spreading out the 

 hand ; two dozen had been taken from that tree 

 in the morning, and a big crop remained of 

 Peaches of good size. The same tree bore a 

 great crop last year. 



I omitted to mention before leaving the vinery 

 that Black Alicante is a great favourite here as 

 a late Grape, and is well grown. White Fron- 

 tignan is grown here as a '■ tasty " Grape. The 

 sorts of Peaches are Hale's Early, Noblesse, 

 Bellegarde, Dr. Hogg, Grosse Mignonne, Sea 

 Eagle, &c. S.B. 



handsome evergreens ; while the red berries of A' 

 Unedo give it an additional claim to the attention of 

 the planter. The present species rarely fruits in 

 this country, and, indeed, is somewhat tender when 

 young. 



New or Noteworthy Plants. 



SPECIMEN TREES IN KEW 

 GARDENS. 



Arbutus Andrachne. — The usual height of this 

 ornamental evergreen tree is cited at 10 — 14 feet, but 

 the specimen which we now figure (fig. 100), and which 

 is growing in the Royal Gardens, Kew, has a height of 

 20 feet, a spread of branches of 20 feet, and a girth, 

 at 2 feet from the ground, of 3 feet 8 inches, so that 

 it cannot be much inferior in size to the native 

 specimens in Greece. A peculiarity of this tree is 

 that the outer bark peels off in large flakes, 

 leaving the newer bark exposed. The smoothness 

 and rich brown-pink hue of the newly-exposed 

 surface is very beautiful. We have not as yet heard 

 of the occurrence, but we have no doubt that some 

 indignant ratepayer will some day indict the autho- 

 rities at Kew for their barbarity in removing the 

 bark of this tree, just as it is not uncommon to see 

 protests in the newspapers against the supposed 

 mischievousness of little wanton boys in removing the 

 bark from the Plane trees in the London parks. 

 The present species is a native of the Levant, and 

 was mentioned by old Greek writers. The proper 

 spelling is said to be adrachne, or in modern Greek, 

 adrachla. The fruit is similar to that of the Irish 

 Arbutus Unedo, and the wood is used for fuel and 

 other purposes in its native country. The leaves are 

 longer than those of the common Arbutus, not so 

 jagged at the edges, and smoother on the surface ; 

 the flowers are white and bell-shaped, something like 

 those of the Lily of the Valley in size, form, and colour, 

 and arranged in dense terminal panicles. Arbutus 

 Unedo, the common Strawberry tree of Killarney, 

 U. hybrida, and U. procera, are all worth growing as 



CLEISOSTOMA RINGENS, n. sp* 

 This very interesting little gem was imported with 

 Phalainopsis Sanderiana, no doubt by Mr. F. Sander. 

 I had it from Mr. James O'Brien. It has very few 

 ligulate, emarginate leaves which are equal to those 

 of a small Phalamopsis grandiflora, Lindl. (O'Br.) 

 Thus they are 3 — 4 inches in length, 1J inch in 

 breadth. The leaf in my herbarium is shorter. 

 Even in the dried state it shows very well the 

 strong and cartilaginous state it had when alive. 

 I believe the leaf had a purple hue above, but 

 I say this from memory only, having made no note 

 about it. The purple peduncle bears very few flowers 

 (I saw two), which I found one-sided, and which are 

 the size of those of Phalasnopsis Parishii. The 

 stalked ovaries are light ochre-yellow. The sepals 

 are ligulate, blunt acute. The petals much narrower, 

 acute, of the same length. Spur of the lip very 

 large, broad, cylindrical, emarginate at the retuse 

 apex. Side laciniae retuse very short. Mid-lacinia 

 oblong apiculate, or three-lobed, blunt or emargi- 

 nate, full of very inconspicuous small warts. There 

 is a large callus under the column. It is oblong, like 

 an anchor near the column, having on each side a 

 projecting shank-curved downwards and an emargi- 

 nate bilobed end towards the extremity of the spurs. 

 There is also a Sarcanthoid septum in the spur. 

 Column slender with a very long rostellar beak. 

 Sepals and petals ochre-yellow, base of the column 

 purple in front. Mid-lacinia of lip purple. There is 

 an orange spot on each side of the side-laciniaj. Alas ! 

 I had no other. I always waited for fuller materials. 

 Mr. O'Brien, however, who appears to have an un- 

 rivalled memory, has regularly praised his pet, I 

 believe every third month since September, 1883 ; so 

 that finally I do what is wanted. H. G. Rchb. f. 



Cypripedium Burfordiense X , n. hyb. Angl., 

 orig. dubi. 



This appears to be a totally unknown hybrid, 

 though it is a very difficult task to affirm this. The 

 leaves are said to be like those of Cypripedium 

 Barteli X , but to be about one-third broader, one- 

 third shorter, as well as a little thicker. The 

 peduncle is dark reddish-brown, covered with short 

 velvetty hairs. The bract is less than half the 

 length of the ovary ; it has a very sharp dorsal keel 

 and dark lines of nerves. The ovary is a little 

 lighter than the peduncle. The upper sepal is 

 very large cuneate elliptical acute, of a very 

 light rosy mauve hue, excepting the tip, which 

 is adorned with a white nearly rhombic patch. 

 There are seventeen strong dark purple nerves. The 

 connate sepal is whitish oblong ligulate acute, exceed- 

 ing the length of the lip. Descending petals light 

 greenish at the base, with superior border of the 

 lightest purple, and brownish-purple on the anterior 

 or exterior somewhat dilated part, its nerves green. 

 There are some purple hairs at the base and cilia? 

 around the border. Near the superior margin 

 are two very dark mauve-purple lines, and this 

 is, as far as I know, quite novel. In addition 

 to these there are very few (four in the flower 

 at hand) mauve-purple exceedingly short narrow 

 spots or lines. The lip is of the shape of that 

 of Cypripedium Argus, brown-ochre-colored under- 

 neath, with a yellow border around the mouth 



* Cleisostoma ringens, n. sp. — Foliis ligulatis apice bilobis 

 brevibus, valde cartilagineis racemo paucifloro, secundifloro ; 

 sepalis ligulatis obtusa acutis ; tepalis lanceis acutis, labelli 

 calcari ample apice retuso nunc emarginato, callo carnoso sub 

 columua basi sub columna utrinque retrorsum unicruris, 

 cruribus calcaris apice spectalibus, apice versus calcaris 

 apicem emarginato, septo . Sarean thideo procalcari ; columna 

 gracilis. Ex insulis Fbilippinis. //. G. Bchb.f. 



