February 3, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS 1 CHRONICLE. 



75 



CATTLEYA MAGGIE RAPHAEL ALBA 



ii 



ORCHIDHURST VARIETY.'' 



The fine white variety of Cattleya Maggie 



Raphael, shown in 



fig- 



35, was exhibited by 



Messrs. Armstrong & Brown, Orchidhurst, Tun- 

 bridge Wells, at a meeting of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society, on January 9, when it received 

 a«i Award of Merit from the Orchid Committee. 

 The illustration shows the flower reduced in size, 

 but it well portrays the fine shape of the blossom. 

 The delicate gold veining on the light magenta- 

 crimson-tinted lip is one of the chief beauties 

 of the variety. The sepals and petals are pure 

 white and of fine substance, consequent on the Bretland Farmer. 

 cross being obtained between a specially-good 

 form of C. Dowiana aurea and the best, pure- 

 white variety of Cattleya Trianae alba. 



in all of them, and perhaps the hygroscopic 

 type is the most baffling of the three, 

 inasmuch as it has been prepared long 

 before it can be of any use to the plant, 

 and its operation is not, so to speak, clue 

 to contemporary response on the part of 

 the living substance. Moreover, like the 

 eye of an animal, every part has to be 

 adjusted with due regard to all the others, 

 or the mechanism would not work. Thus 

 again we are confronted with the elemental 

 mystery that always opposes us whenever 

 we try to get really face to face with the 

 fundamental secrets of Nature. /. 



HOME CORRESPONDENCE 



(The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for 

 the opinions expressed by correspondents.) 



Proposed Exhibition of South African 



Fruits. — The following cablegram was received 

 on January 22 by the High Commissioner in 

 London for the Union of South Africa from the 

 Department of Agriculture, Pretoria :— " Owing 

 to unforeseen circumstances, regret Government 

 compelled to abandon exhibition." No further 

 explanation has yet come to hand, but it is neces- 

 sary to abandon the exhibition accordingly. All 

 notices appearing in the Society's " Book "of Ar- 

 rangements," on Fellows' tickets, and elsewhere 





MOVEMENT IN PLANTS. 



(Concluded from p. 50.) 



Finally, another series of movements is 

 due to hygroscopic changes in certain cells 

 or cell-walls. These mechanisms are quite 

 comparable with the wetted paper above 

 mentioned. But the wonderful feature in 

 them is this : the walls are so constructed 

 that when water is soaked up by them ex- 

 pansion takes place differently on the two 

 sides of the membrane or sheet of cellular 

 tissue. A strip of celluloid coated with 

 gelatine, like the films used in photo- 

 graphy, illustrates in a general way how 

 they are constructed. Such a film when dry 

 commonly rolls tightly up with the gelatine 

 inside, and unrolls when wet. This is 

 because the gelatine soaks up much more 

 water, and gives out correspondingly more, 

 than the celluloid part of the film. Now, 

 when a Rose of Jericho (Anastatica) plant 

 is observed in its dry state the twigs are 

 all bent inwards, but a brief immersion in 

 water causes them to unroll and spread 

 out. This is because there is a difference 

 in the structure of the thick mechanical 

 cells of the upper and lower side of the 

 branches. The cells on the upper side are 

 so constructed as to elongate by nearly 

 8 per cent, of their length when wet (con- 

 tracting to a corresponding extent when 

 dry), while those on the under side do not 

 enlarge in this way. A mental picture of 

 the finer structure of the walls may be 

 formed if they are imagined to be built 

 up of long, narrow bricks, which are placed 

 one above another with the long axis run- 

 ning transversely on the upper side of the 

 branch, and longitudinally on the lower 

 side. It will be plain that there will be 

 many more interstices in a given length of 

 the upper than the lower surface between 

 which water can penetrate and force the 

 bncks further apart, and it is this circum- 

 stance that enables the hygroscopic move- 

 ments to take place. 



Some of these hygroscopic movements 



d T T f\ 1* TT *-v «~» w^m -«. I m V - - — . 



are very complex. 



The inrolling of the 



3™ V Campanula or Poppy capsule 

 depends on this kind of structure, and so 

 do the very beautiful movements of a Mors 

 peristome Indeed, the various species of 

 Mosses afford some of the most wonder- 

 fully adapted mechanisms for ensuring the 

 proper dispersion of the spores that can 

 well be imagined. 



r *lL is Z\ C v Ur -! e q , uite impossible, within 

 reasonable limits of space, to do more than 

 merely touch upon the varied forms of the 

 motile mechanisms of plants. They exhibit 



Sf „ e ? d l ess t variet y in detail, though 

 they fall mto the three chief types, proto- 



whiiS IC T w £ ter - co £esion, and hygroscopic, 



th« £ h Vf briefl y indicated. But 

 X™? ur P° 8 efulness of the arrangements 

 tonus the really marvellous feature 







^ 

















»-< 







* 





i 







i 



i 



X 



Fig. 35.— cattleya maggte Raphael alba " orchidhurst variety n ; sepals and 



PETALS WHITE, LIP VEINED WITH GOLD ON MAGENTA GROUND. 



SCOTLAND. 



EDINBURGH PUBLIC GOLF LINKS. 



Although the charge to golfers for playing 

 the whole round on the Braid Hills course was 

 raised in March last from twopence to three- 

 pence, the fees for the year amounted to £932, 

 against about £600 in 1910. The Saughton Park 

 course, where there are only nine holes, for play- 

 ing over which one penny is charged, has yielded 

 a revenue of upwards of £260, nearly 63,000 

 rounds having been played. The Portobello 

 courses have also increased in favour with 

 players, upwards of 27,000 rounds at twopence 

 and nearly 16,000 at one penny producing an in- 

 come of close on £300. 



are cancelled. W. Wilks, Secretary Royal Hor- 

 ticultural Society. 



The Promise of the B.G.A. — I rejoice in 

 being able to assure readers that all is well 

 with the B.G.A. The Chronicle showed a 

 lively interest in its birth ; indeed, the 

 then worthy editor, the late Dr. Masters, 

 actually presided at that auspicious event. 

 Rumour has been busy lately with respect to the 

 health and character of the stripling, but she 

 proves in this, what she so often is, a base 

 slanderer. There was a difference over trifles 

 between the worthy hon. secretary and the 



executive council, which had the very excel- 

 lent result of leading the council to decide 





