50 » 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICL 



UARY 



ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



and generally (though not invariably) the 

 outer wall as a thin skin. Now when the 

 stamen ripens, and the supply of water 

 from within is gradually cut off, evapora- 

 tion continues at the outside. The cells 

 contain less and less water, but owing to 

 the great cohesive power of the contained 

 liquid, and the imperviousness of the wet 

 membranes to the passage of air, the side 

 walls are gradually drawn together. And 

 this drawing together is most prominent 

 on tti3 thin outer surfaca, which, as a 

 whole, contracts in consequence. Presently 

 the anther walls split open and begin to 

 curl back, so that the outer, contracted, 

 surface comes to lie on the inner side of 

 the curve, and the anther thus dehisce:*. , . 



T , j,i r* , _ f\i\ Orchids ot JNew (jrumea, as there is now in the 



In some stamens, e.g., the Castor U:l , , ' , , , . , . 



. . . ' . ° ' , , , press a work by one of the best orchidologists, 



riant, when this backward curvature lias u , , ,, . . *? , 



1 a ' v> ix^n «"« ^« w j 1Q ^ ag S p en ^ gome years in that island. 



This scientific work, cf which the first two 

 numbers are already published, will be 



THE ROSARY. 



THE ORCHIDS OF NEW GUINEA.* 



In hardly any country of the same size are 

 there so many Orchids as in New Guinea. When 

 all the species collected during the last few years 

 are described, there will be nearly 1,000, 

 and when the difficulties of the country 

 are considered, the successes of plant col- 

 lectors are remarkable. Amongst these are 

 many well worthy of culture in our stoves, 

 as they possess 

 most of them are difficult to grow. How- 

 ever, many Orchids which showed for a 

 long time the same difficulty are now easily 

 cultivated, since we know the climatic conditions 

 of their native habitats. So it will be with the 



striking beauty, although 



reached a certain stage, the internal co 

 hesion of the water is broken, and the cells 

 spring back to their former shape. In 

 doing so, they cause the pollen to be 

 forcibly flicked out from tha stamen. 

 Generally, however, this does not happen, 

 and only if the anther gets wetted do the 

 walls recover their original positions. 



A mechanism like that of the Castor Oil 

 plant is responsible for the jerking out of 



from the 



very 



NEW ROSES OFTHEN.R.S. "CATALOGUE." 



(Continued from p. 451, vol. I.) 



II.— ROSES OF 1910. 



In the previous article on this subject I dealt 

 with the new Roses brought out in 1911, the 

 names of which appear in the N.R.S. Catalogue. 

 In the present article I propose to give some 

 account of the Roses therein mentioned and 

 brought out in the year 1910. Of these perhaps 

 we know a trifle more than of those of 1911, but 

 the difference in our knowledge of them is not 

 great. We have not yet had time to study them 

 in our gardens, and this is the only real test of a 



Rose. Some few of them that made a particular 

 impression on us we have no doubt got there; 

 but they have been subjected to a summer of 

 quite unusual character and our observation of 

 them must necessarily be inadequate, and any 

 judgment or opinion founded thereon can 

 only be provisional, and subject to many 

 reservations. Not only does the cver-propaga- 



the four megaspores 



large 



sporangia of a Selaginella. If one shakes 

 out these sporangia from the plant on to 

 a plate when they are ripe, the scattering 

 of the spores may be easily watched. The 

 sporangium opens slowly, revealing the 

 four spores beautifully packed inside. Sud- 

 denly the two valves of the sporangium 

 violently change their shape and position, 

 and the spores are propelled to a con- 

 siderable distance. Essentially the same 

 process can be seen when a Fern sporan- 

 gium slow r ly opens, and, after curling back- 

 wards, suddenly springs forward again, 

 and hurls the spores as from a catapult. In 

 both examples water evaporates from the 

 cells, and distortion is produced owing to 

 the consequent approximation of the cell- 

 walls in the motile region. Then the in- 

 ternal cohesion of the water gives way, 

 and the elastic walls recover their original 

 form with an almost explosive violence. 

 /. Bretland Fanner. 



(To be continued.) 



NEW OR NOTEWORTHY 



PLANTS. 



CALCEOLARIA VIRGATA. 



Calceolaria virgata (see fig. 27) is a native 



of the Andes of Peru and Bolivia, where it is 

 found at elevations of from 8,000 feet to 13,000 

 feet. It forms a bushy plant, growing from 1 foot 

 to 1^ foot high. The leaves are ovate and shortly 

 stalked. During the summer and autumn months 

 the somewhat small, white flowers are produced 

 in great numbers. The species was introduced to 

 cultivation by Messrs. Sander & Sons, St. Albans, 

 in 1910 and specimens have flowered freely dur- 

 ing the past two summers in the open at Kew 

 gardens, both in a bed and in a shaded place in 

 the rock-garden, where it was an effective and 

 attractive subject. Up to the present the plant 

 has not been grown out-of-doors during the win- 

 ter, but it will probably prove tender, like the 

 closely-allied C. alba, except in the more 

 favoured parts of Great Britain. Cuttings root 

 readily : those struck in the autumn furnish good 

 flowering plants the following summer. IT'. /. 



Photograph by W. Irving, 



Fig. 27.— calceolaria virgata in the rock-garden at kew. 



valuable to cultivators. To the description 

 of each genus is added an explanation of 

 the distribution of the various species, and to 

 each species is appended a description of its 

 locality. Thus, the author points out that the garden when it becomes established. 



two species of Paphiopedilum, hitherto known, 

 namely, P. glanduliferum and P. prsestans, are 

 epiphytes, growing on large trees in Dutch 



Guinea, whilst the new one, P. violaceum is a 

 terrestrial species, which loves the half shaded 

 places on the slopes of the mountains, where it 

 grows in the humus on rocks. The localities 

 where the species is growing are : on rocky slopes 

 of the Finisterre mountains, 1,200 metres above 

 sea level, where the plants flower in May ; in the 

 humus of the forests of the Maboro at 1,300 

 metres; on rocks at the Govidjoa brook, 1,000 

 metres, where flowering takes place in June. 



Similar notes are added to the account of each 

 genus and species. The author will give in a 

 concluding chapter descriptions of the climatic 

 conditions of all the localities. B. 



+ Die Orchidaceen von Deutsch-Neu-Guinea 9 by Dr. Rudolf 

 Schltchter; Berlin- Wiimersdoif, F. Fedde. 1911. 



tion to which nearly all new Roses are subjected 

 often cause them to behave in an abnormal 

 manner, but what the amateur really wants to 

 know is how the Rose is likelv to behave in his 



It is just 



this which it is practically impossible to tell 

 him for a few years after the Rose is first put m 

 commerce. I must therefore ask my readers to 

 accept any statement I may make in this article 

 as subject to revision in the light of fuller know- 

 ledge of the varieties. 



Alexandra Zarifi, T.— This Rose is single- 

 flowered, and best described as a chestnut- 

 coloured Irish Elegance j it is equally free-flower- 

 ing, and much resembles it in habit of growth, 

 but the buds are terra cotta in colour and the 

 flowers are a bright chestnut on a pale-pink 

 ground, passing, as the flowers age, to a clear 

 buff. It is a decorative Rose, and should make 

 a good bedding variety of the taller type of bed- 

 ding Rose. The foliage is good and shiny, and 

 is a distinct feature of the Rose. It received a 

 card of Commendation from the X.R.S. in 1910- 

 1% may be remarked that though Irish Elegance 

 is classed araon? the H.T.s in the N-B.S* 



among 



