January 20, 1912.1 



THE GA RDENERS' CHR ON I CLE 



35 



NEW OR NOTEWORTHY 



PLANTS. 



ULMUS PLOTII, DRUCE. 



I would be the last person in the world to 

 begrudge the ancient shade of the worthy 

 Dr. Robert Plot the distinction of having 

 another species named after him, or Mr. 

 Druce the satisfaction of affixing his name to 

 a new species of British Elm ; but I cannot see 

 that the latter gentleman has made good his in- 

 tention of honouring the former in the brief note 

 he publishes in your columns (Gardeners 7 

 Chronicle, p. 408, vol. 1.). Had Mr. Druce been 

 writing a century and a half ago, regardless of 

 the trouble he would give to succeeding botanists, 

 the curt diagnosis he vouchsafes might be ex- 

 cused. It is no worse than some of Linne's, or 

 many of Ehrhart's, though hardly equal to most 

 of Philip Miller's. It consists of habit, slight 

 characters of bark and twigs and size and shape 

 of leaf. This is altogether inadequate to describe 

 a species of Ulmus in the 20th century. I do not 

 remember to have seen anv Elms named bv Plot 



name, U. glabra Hudson preceding and displac- the description of the Elm in Johnson's Gerard, 



ing it. Therefore, my friend Dr. Moss has in a when he came to Oxford, and, therefore, Plot 



recent publication called Miller's U. glabra U. quite well knew what he was writing about when 



procera Salisbury, the smooth-leaved Elm. This he showed how his tree differs from those pre- 



is a common tree in Eastern England, not only in viously described by Goodyer. I know the 



hedges but in woods. Only on the basis of an 

 archaic systematism could U. procera Salisbury 

 be made synonymous with U. Plotii. I agree 

 with Professor Boulger that a more complete de- 

 scription is desirable, and such is already in type 

 for the Be port of the Botanical Exchange Club 

 and Society of the British Isles, but a photo- 

 graph is much more valuable as a means of iden- 

 tification 



Boulgei 



than any description, and I think if 



will carefully study the two 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle 



165, 166) he will 



in 



Professor 

 examples given 

 (vol. L, pp. 408-409, figs. 



maintain that 



they 

 Elm. 



are 



This 



identical 



latter 



the habit of the 



scarcely 



with Miller's glabrous 



has much larger leaves, 



tree is quite different, and, I believe, 



it has a different time of flowering. The Rev. A. 



Ley, in his paper on Elms, either mistook or 



merged Plot's Elm into U. minor Mill., an 



evident error, since Miller's minor is the Cornish 



among his plants in the Sloane Herbarium, Elm, while Dr. Moss puts the small-leaved Gam- 



t 









.""S 



\ 



\ 





k 



.... . ..-.-,-,-.--, / ■ *W - V -«—■!>. -.-S..i^-« 



■/- 



FlG. 20. — PEAR MRS. SEDEN (SECKLE X BERGAMOTTE ESPEREN). 



(Received R.H.S. Award of Merit on the 9th inst. Exhibited by Messrs. Jas Veitch & Sons. See p. 30 ante.) 



vol. exiii. ; nor do I know of any evidence that 

 he had any critical knowledge of the groups, such 

 as Goodyer had in the preceding generation. Mr. 

 Druce speaks of having seen this new species, 

 previously treated by him as a variety of U. 

 sativa Miller, in several counties, including 

 Essex, of its elegant habit and acuminate leaves. 



Now the typical U. glabra Miller 

 variable of Elms 



bridge Elm, which is closely allied to, if not 

 identical with, U. Plotii, under U. sativa Miller 

 — U. campestris Sm. ; but I am afraid in doing 

 this I cannot follow him. However, my point is 

 that both Ley and Moss keep U. glabra Miller 

 well away from Plot's tree. Opinion will always 

 differ as to what constitutes a species. Linnaeus 



abounds in Essex, has a grace- 

 ful " open " habit of growth and strikingly 

 acuminate leaves. Edward Forster, in sending 

 it to Sowerby for English Botany, suggested the 

 name " elegans " for it. I have often found this 

 species, though more sparingly, in the Midland 

 counties. 



not the most had one species of Elm. 



Bentham would group 

 the British Elms under two species. In my List 

 of British Plant< I grouped the British Elms 

 under three specie?, and if I had to limit our 

 British Elms to that number I should so far 

 agree with Professor Boulger as to write U. pro- 

 cera Salisbury (U. glabra Mill., now Huds.) var. 



tages. 



Wood 



the 



One specimen I think I remember see- Plotii, but to the floristic botanists and to the 

 ing, about two years ago, in the playground of horticulturist greater segregation has its advan- 

 the village school at Temple Balsall, near Kenil- 

 worth, Warwickshire, being apparently a county 

 rich in forms of Elm. I see nothing in Mr. 

 D uce's description to differentiate his U. Plotii 

 from U. glabra Miller. G. S. Boulger. 



Ilortus Swcus, reputed to belong to Plot, re- 

 ferred to by Professor Boulger, but it certainly 

 does not represent the plants described in his 

 Xat. Hist, of Oxfordshire. Later on I hope to 

 give an illustration in the Gardeners' Chronicle 

 of Miller's Elm, as well as of some others. In the 



Elms the bark and the habit afford characters 

 (and these are absent from herbarium specimens) 



of great value, which a photograph alone does 

 justice to. 



A point I am much exercised about, and on 

 this Professor Boulger can give very excellent * 

 suggestions, is by what name shall the English 

 Elm be called? Later on in the year, if he will 

 come to Oxford, I will gladly show him both 

 Plot's and Miller's Elms. I find that the English 

 Elms near The Parks and near Magdalen College, 

 Oxford, were planted about 1680. The tree was 

 then obtainable from nurseries. (?. Claridge 



Druce. 



ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



ORCHIDS AT BROADLANDS. 



I recently inspected the small, but exceed- 

 ingly choice, collection of Orchids at Broadlands, 

 Tunbridge Wells, the residence of E. R. 

 Ashton, Esq. Broadlands has a delightful situa- 

 tion on high ground, and the gardens contain a 

 small block of plant houses which, although not 

 built for growing Orchids, have been adapted for 

 the purpose by a re-arrangement of the staging, 

 ventilation, and other details. The plants grow 

 and flower exceedingly well in these houses, and 

 the erection of two more glasshouses is contem- 

 plated. Hybrid Cattleyas and Laelio-Cattleyas 

 grow especially well, and in the display house 

 at the time of my visit there was a fine show of 

 good forms of Cattleya labiata and its hybrids, 

 including several richly-coloured forms of C. 

 Fabia; C. Clarkiae, of a peculiar form, the 

 flowers having buff-tinted sepals and petals, and 



violet-crimson lips, and borne seven 

 flowers on the spike; C. Phrygia (Enid x Portia) 

 with a fine inflorescence of six blooms ; a similar 

 spike of C. Portia ; while C. Mantinii, C. John 

 Baguely, C. Mrs. J. W. Whiteley, and other 

 hybrids of C. Bowringiana were equally well 

 bloomed. Others I observed were C. Luegae, 

 C. Miss Harris, C. Armstrongiee, one of the 



bright 



prettiest of 



autumn-flowering 



Cattleyas, one 



specimen bearing a spike of seven showy rose- 

 coloured flowers ; C. Dowiana aurea, and several 

 good examples of C. Bowringiana, with Brasso- 

 Cattleya Mrs. F. Leemann, B.-C. Madame Chas. 

 Maron, B.-C. Digbyano-Mendelii, Brasso-Laelia 



Digbyano - purpurata, 



and 



various 



Laelio- 



Cattleyas, of which the hybrids of Leelia Perrinii, 

 including L.-C. Lady Rothschild and L.-C. 

 Statteriana, were specially bright. A plant of 

 Cattleya Dusseldorfei Undine bore a fine white 

 flower measuring nearly 6 inches across. In a 

 cool house were Odontoglossums, plants of O. 

 crispum, 

 and others being in bloom. 



0. Harryano-crispum, 0. Wilckcanum 



A somewhat warmer 

 house contained a selection of species such as 

 require an intermediate temperature. They in- 

 cluded some good plants of Lselia anceps, one 

 with six flower-spikes ; various Oncidiums, O. 



glabrous species, but how different is that from 



Plot's Elm? Plot was a good botanist; 



raises several interesting points, but his conclu- he first differentiated several 



timber of Plot's Elm from that of Miller's glab- Forbesii and O. varicosum being in flower. An 

 rous Elm, and I may add that Arnold's Elm, 

 " And maidens from the distant hamlets come 

 to dance round Fyfield Elm in May " is Miller's 



Professor Boulger's note on Ulmus Plotii 



new 



sions I cannot accept. In the first place, U. 

 glabra Miller (Gard. Diet., 1768) is an untenable 



species, 

 and, moreover, he had opportunities of meeting 

 Goodyer of Maple Durham, who drew up 



adjoining warm house contained Dendrobiums, D. 

 Phalaenopsis was furnished with graceful sprays, 

 whilst D. Sanderae, one of the finest Dendrobes, 

 had two spikes, each with seven large white 

 flowers marked on the lip with purple lines. 

 Among other plants in this house were several 

 Epidendrums and other Orchids brought from 

 the West Indies bv Mrs. Ashton : Oncidium 



