DecEMBEB 22, 1888.] 



TEE GARDENERS' CER0N1CLE. 



727 



beautiful soft yellow. Like the flowers of many 

 other Maxillarias, these give off a pleasant fragrance. 

 Coming from the Andes of Paraguay and Peru, this 

 species require a cool, moist atmosphere, and should 

 be grown in pots in a'compost of peat and sphagnum. 

 It is flowering now at Kew. W. B, 



DeNDEOBIL'M PRIMOLIKTJM. 



A lovely variety of this Dendrobe is now flowering 

 most profusely, having ninety-seven flowers on nine 

 growths, in Mrs. Arbuthnot's collection, Bexley 

 (gardener, Mr. Mitchell). It is growing in a 32-sized 

 pot, with a little peat and moss, and it looks remark- 

 ably chaste when hanging beside the Snphronitis 

 grandiflora. John CareUl. 



Phal.uxopsis intbrmedia Portei. 

 In the fine gardens of Mrs. Perrin, Davenham, 

 Malvern, under the care of Mr. A. Bradshaw, a 

 noble specimen of this rare white and rose species 

 bears a five-branched spike of fifty-nine flowers. 

 Each flower is over 2 inches in width, and excellent 

 culture has made the rosy-crimson front lobe of the 

 labellum, and the spotting on the side lobes very 

 bright and showy. A branched spike of P. amabilis, 

 3 feet in length, has twenty-seven flowers, and others 

 are good, a large-flowered rose variety of P. Esme- 

 ralda, with forty-seven flowers, being especially 

 attractive. 



Cattleya Exoxiexsis X. 

 A noble specimen of this handsome and fragrant 

 production of Messrs. Jas. Veitch & Sons, is in 

 flower in Mrs. Perrin's gardens, at Davenham, 

 Malvern, with fourteen flowers. It is the best 

 variety, with very rich crimson and yellow in the 

 labellum, and petals also keep flatly expanded. It is 

 a fine and valuable specimen, and it and the other 

 Orchids here has been skilfully managed by Mr. 

 Bradshaw. 



Miniature Orchids. 

 The object of the present note is to point out a 

 few of the smaller Orchids, some of which rarely find 

 a place in collections, but which, requiring little 

 space and attention, are nevertheless objects both of 

 interest and beauty. Many plant-houses might not 

 only serve their present purposes, but also afford 

 room for most of these little gems, and thus greatly 

 add to their attractions. Two yards of copper wire 

 strung about 9 inches from the roof-glass would hold 

 a dozen or twenty of them, and after the plants were 

 obtained, a few shallow pans made for suspending, 

 and some peat fibre and sphagnum, would complete 

 the outlay. 



Amongst cool Orchids there are several remark- 

 able little Masdevallias, M. triaristella and M. 

 trichate are easily grown and free-flowering ; M. 

 muscosa has the almost unique power of jerking 

 up the column at the slightest touch. The 

 genus Pleurothallis has not an enviable repu- 

 tation amongst Orchid growers but some of its 

 smallest representatives are very pretty. P. 

 macroblepharis and P. Barberiana are similar in 

 general appearance, but are quite district ; they have 

 transparent whitish flowers thickly and beautifully 

 spotted with purple, the latter is scarcely ever out of 

 flower. P. ornatus is a minute species, with leaves 

 half an inch across and purple flowers, the sepals of 

 which are furnished at the edges with numerous 

 club-shaped appendages that twirl about at the 

 slightest breath of air. Sophronitis grandiflora is a 

 well-known species, with bright scarlet flowers ; S. 

 violacea is equally beautiful, but is seldom grown. 

 It has purplish-violet flowers, and blooms in 

 February (t. 6880, Hot. Mag.) Sarcochilus Hart- 

 manni is an Australian species, well worth culti- 

 vating for its dense spikes of white flowers, which 

 are produced in spring, and last a long time in 

 beauty. Odontoglossum has a charming represen- 

 tative in O. (Erstedii, whose white flowers are delight- 

 fully fragrant. 



In a little higher temperature might be grown 

 Lai'lia pumila, with its beautiful rosy-crimson flowers, 

 and L. monophylla, a species found on the mountains 

 of Jamaica; it has slender stems, 5 or 6 inches 



high, bearing solitary, bright scarlet flowers, and 

 differs from other Ladias in requiring a shady posi- 

 tion in summer. Mystacidium fiiicorne is a Cape 

 Orchid, a good idea of whose beauty is given in a 

 figure in the Gardeners' Chronicle for July 30, 1887 ; 

 its flowers are white and fragrant. Angrajcum fal- 

 catum does well in an intermediate-house grown in 

 sphagnum alone ; its white, scented flowers and long 

 slender spur are always admired. Proniemca citrina 

 has rich yellow flowers, the lip being spotted with 

 crimson ; P. stapelioides has peculiar looking green- 

 ish-yellow flowers, thickly marked with blackish- 

 purple. 



In the warm house might be grown various species 

 of Bolbophyllum whose hinged labellums are very 

 interesting ; the small but lovely Angra:cums from 

 Madagascar, Dendrobium Jenkinsii, and many others. 

 Indeed, the list I have given might easily be trebled 

 W.B. 



DRIED FRUITS. 



The winter season brings round an increased 

 trade in dried fruits, which take the place to a large 

 extent of fresh fruits. Raisins, Currants, Figs, and 

 Dates, appear in quantities in the grocers' shops. 

 The preparation and commerce in these give 

 employment to thousands of people in various 

 countries. The dried species of Prunus of them- 

 selves furnish an extensive trade on the Continent, 

 on which we are dependent for our supplies. 



The common Plum, or Prune, is grown in great 

 abundance about Bordeaux. One firm alone ex- 

 ports this article to the value of about £1.3,000. 

 The dried Plums are the " Pruneau or Prunes 

 seches" of the French. The best are the large 

 black ones received from Bordeaux. Prunelloes, 

 or Prunes du Briguolles, are received from the 

 neighbourhood of Brignolles (Var), whence their 

 name. They are somewhat larger than the common 

 Prune. Of French Plums and Prunelloes we received 

 14,388 cwt. in 1885, valued at £51,474, nearly all 

 from France ; all of these but 2000 cwt. were taken 

 for consumption here. The duty on all saccharine 

 preserved fruits is 7s. per cwt. Of Prunes we re- 

 ceived in the same year 27,504 cwt., valued at 

 £32,122. All but 3000 cwt. came from France, and 

 were for home consumption. 



To give an idea of the commerce in fruit in the 

 department of the Gironde, it may be stated that a 

 single confectioner in Bordeaux has been known to 

 purchase as many as 4000 lb. of Reine Claude 

 (Green Gages) every day for a fortnight, besides 

 large quantities of Peaches and Pears; and he 

 has expended as much as £800 in the purchase 

 of Apricots. There is also a species of wild 

 Prune which grows about Labresne and Bouillac 

 which is very prolific. It ripens in the month of 

 July, and as many as 2000 baskets may be gathered 

 in a day. 



The preparation of Prunes is a largely developed 

 industry in the central and southern departments of 

 France. At Agen and Tours they collect the fruit 

 as it ripens and falls to the ground. They are then 

 exposed on trays to the sun, after which they are 

 passed successively through an oven three times at 

 different heats. In Provence after the Prunes are 

 collected they are plunged into boiling water, 

 drained, and then dried in the sun. 



The Prunelloes are first peeled and then placed in 

 thin bags, wrapped round with straw, and dried in 

 the sun till the principal part of the moisture has 

 evaporated. As Prunes contain much sugar this 

 forms, on those of good quality, an efflorescence on 

 the surface. The best Prunes come from INancy, 

 Tours, Brignolles, and Agen. 



Dried or preserved Plums reached us in 1885 to 

 the amount of 7648 cwt., of the value of £11,146, 

 and they were nearly all consumed in this country. 

 The bulk of these supplies came from Germany and 

 Austria, France and Portugal supplying the re- 

 mainder. 



The Plum crop is the most important of the pro- 

 vince of Bosnia, and is chiefly gathered in the north, 



The annual produce is about 120,000 cwt., of which 

 half is available for export. They realise on an aver- 

 age £1 per cwt. 



There is a preserving factory in Slavonia which 

 turns out annually 240,000 boxes of preserved fruits. 

 Slavonia produces annually about 30 tons of dried 

 fruit and 2000 tons of " compotes " of Prunes, which 

 are found on almost every dinner-table in Germany. 

 From the Plum they also distil a kind of 'brandy, 

 called " Slivovica," or " Slibowitz," and make large 

 quantities of sweetmeats. Hungary carries on an 

 extensive trade in dried fruits. P. L. S. 



Cultural Memoranda. 



EURYCLES AUSTRALASICA. 

 Is habit this plant resembles Eucharis amazonica, 

 except that the leaves are broader, shorter, rounder, 

 and more deeply channelled. It produces large heads 

 of beautiful white flowers borne on stout stalks. 

 Propagation is by offsets, which should be potted 

 into 3-inch pots, in a mixture of four parts sound 

 loam to one of leaf-soil and sharp sand. Place the 

 plants in a stove, or warm pit near to the glass, to 

 prevent them making a weakly growth, affording 

 water at the roots. After the latter have pushed 

 into the soil, warm liquid manure should be afforded 

 them, alternating it with clear tepid water. H. W. 

 Ward. [There are two species in gardens, viz , 

 amboinensis, with white flowers on a many-flowered 

 umbel : season of flowering, March : Australasica 

 is its synonym ; and Cunninghami, the Brisbane 

 Lily, also with white flowers, which are less crowded 

 than those of amboinensis. Ed.] 



DlELVTRA SPECTABILIS. 



The gracefulness of this plant and its delicate rose- 

 coloured flowers render it a very effective plant for 

 the conservatory or for cutting ; when, as in the 

 latter case, it is mixed with its own beautiful leaves, 

 it is very beautiful. Plants which were transplanted in 

 the open during the last or the previous spring are 

 those best adapted for the purpose of being forced 

 The stools should be taken up if they are still in the 

 border and potted, using ordinary mould and pots no 

 larger than are required to hold the roots without 

 injury, leaving the crowns a little above the surface. 

 Place the potted roots in a Peach-house or vinery 

 or any house in which the temperature is about 50 c . 

 Settle the soil by giving the Dots a good watering, 

 afterwards covering each crown with an inverted 

 flower-pot until they have made 9 or 10 inches of 

 growth, and the flower-spikes have got well above 

 the foliage. The inverted pots must then be removed 

 by degrees, and tepid liquid manure occasionally 

 given to assist development. When the plants have 

 done flowering they should be hardened off before 

 being again planted in the open ground iu spring. 

 H. W. W. 



Antiuonon leptofus. 

 At first sight the flower of this plant might readily 

 be mistaken for those of a small species of Bougain- 

 villea ; but on closer inspection it can be easily seen 

 that, instead of the coloured flower-bracts being the 

 most showy part, as in Bougainvillea, it is the usual 

 floral envelope — a perianth of five pieces — which is the 

 showy part in this plant, the three outer petals being 

 larger than the two inner. They are all a bright rose 

 colour, the individual flowers being about half-an-inch 

 across. They are produced on axillary and terminal 

 one-sided racemes, which run out into slender, 

 branched, hooked tendrils ; and as is often the case 

 in plants belonging to this order, the commencement 

 of the inflorescence soon marks the point on the 

 shoots where leaf-growth ceases, so that the end of 

 the shoots for a foot or more is entirely made up of 

 flowering branchlets which are disposed in a graceful 

 manner. The plant is said to be indigenous to 

 Mexico, but we are told that it is now widely distributed 

 in tropical countries. The plant was introduced to 

 Englapd some twenty years ago, but it is not nearly 



