Max 21, 1887.] 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
679 
E ——__— 
yiolet blotches ; лр Sanderiana has many 
spikes o of flow ers W Eee rose pen darker a 
variety. 
represented and favorite Odontoglossum crispum 
ion pe in меа и — in their 
the n form and size, 
with something like thes geet ан reddish- brown 
ич стага, and the other а 
blotehing o uc 
lovely and qe iety milk-white flowers, 
aring distinct Potes of re rose- jest: ite а lady's 
flow 
4 g other rare plants in flower here are On- 
cidium lamelligerum, —— € — 
ith 
E ric h and massive flowers; o sim senten, 
of the true original stock the pur 
white "Mos ossig ; C. Rein E the sudo e crimson 
many varieties; Lelia 
m of L, elegans of the Татегі 
rosea, two very distinct forms; many super 
p Mar ste ium, О. шан, 0. gebe 0. 
Pescatorei, Oncidium Marshallian arcodes 
Dend drobiu um suavissimum, with ma E оты ; and 
some large Cymbidium heim. id Calanthe 
Not the least pleasing to growers is the 
bium Dalhousianum with й ne spikes now to 
seen in Mr lard show-house. It must not 
be o o mention the handsome new 
it LB 
Gloxinia Altre Outram, which i и worthily promoted 
м clearest t scarlet его flowered Gloxinia with 
white edge ever introduced 
Messrs, J, VEITCH & Sons. 
The various — of Orehids in the large Catt- 
leya-house are just п 
worthy of a visit. 
enormous spikes of flower on several examples, Of 
the recently resuscitated _Schomburgkia tibicina two 
ог three plants flower; their long stiff 
es; of C 
Mossis, beautiful forms of C. 
intermedia, C. with 
of C. Warneri San 
many were coming rapidly into flower. we the other 
houses = Cypripediums, amongst them C. leu- 
corrhodum, a fine-substanced bloom of гд ріпк 
d pink ; the er e is bowl-shaped, enve- 
ping the whole back 
FLOWER AT KEW. 
HOMERIA ELEGANS.— The s Homeria consists 
of а few species; all natives of South Africa. АП 
have remarkably h andsome, brightly coloured flowers, 
which last much longer 
PLANTS IN 
ut а 
ht, and has narrow swo d-shape ed leaves, a 18 
figured in the Botanical Magee ine, t. 1283, under the 
name of Mora spicata. 
DIMORPHOTHECA GRAMINIFOLIA, 
This is a handsome Cape Composite, with onm 
leaves вы: long-stalked flower-heads. The п 
surface of the ray florets is brownish, and the ipi 
urface white with a violet base. For cool green- 
house decoration or even for „учёт outside during 
summer in sunny spots, there saei more desir- 
able sen Mes species was сне t Chelsea 
long 1731, but it is nid eig зб far from 
common even now, It is now in flower in the Cape 
house at Kew. 
IRIS LINEATA 
is a new Iris from the Caucasus, recently described 
d figured in the herve (t. 1244) iby Dr. 
e publication just named 
we learn e was received by that inde- 
fatigable оа ену rr Max Leichtlin, idu 
the name of I. acutiloba of c. A. Meyer, but that it 
is quite different from that species and comes nearest 
I. Leichtlinii, pm which it differs in its leaves as 
well as in the size and colour of the flowers. The 
upper surface of "A outer is of a greenish- 
8 
brownish-red veins, and the beard blue-purple. The 
teristic of the plant. A 
Kew has furnished vod for a ч which will 
appear in the Botanical Magazine 
POTATO CULTURE. 
THERE has been during the past six mouths more 
than one indication of increasing recognition of the 
fact that our knowledge of Pota owth 
Potato growing is far from being as complete as it 
Conferences held in connection 
to show how many questions there are 
n the minds of cultivators which remain mere ques- 
tions, "Though many of the more abstruse reni 
gical uncertainties found no veg in the 
they are well known to thos 
u 
di 
B 
E 
desire for а more systematic study of Potato culture 
was manifested by the proposal to originate а 
National Potato Society, to which reference was made 
in these columns in the issue for December 1l 
754 
ron ring the spring the Scientific Committee of 
the Tercentenary Exhibition ac ht nferences has 
been endeavouring to arrange for a continuance of 
their work in July, and the айкыи» are com- 
pleted so far as this—the Royal turisti 
Society has placed in а беу disposal o 
P 
Beyond selected repre 
sentative examples of the different varieties 
that have been produced, the tubers themselves, 
would form but а subsidiary portion of it. 
А е place would be given to the literature of 
he Potato, both historic and aa including 
h lant жч 
take рч їп ipd growth, дее е бот et im 
formation of starch in 
Potatos in bl ау serve to direct more attention 
to fertilisation, which, with th yera honc 
hrown out rossing peri some 80-C зү wild" 
species is n rded as importan Midi 
eteorology d did аз deren) 
е ines would also find a place as well as that 
e bestowed on the Potato before its use—its 
cool ‘ink. 
4 last process does not concern a cultivator, 
How coo med spoil good Potatos is 
mats odii and no . His interest ends with 
rofit 
at yet which it is und — exist in carrying 
out the proposed exhibit and conferences, and 
lectures, will or will ot pa overcome, is not yet 
known. 
апу case the fact remains, that there is а 
desire to secure fuller — of the minute 
details of Potato grow an we now possess, Till 
we know these, our practical cultivation must remain 
more or less empirical. 
'Тһе destroying invader, the Phytophthora, h 
centered so much attention on itself that the life- 
history of the Potato has been e езе, of but re- 
latively scant inquiry, is onlyas one practical 
- uestion after another arises that we begin to realise 
how little we do know. People, of course, grew 
ate Potatos long before modern chemistry had arisen 
,carbon, and oxygen, 
їп definite proportions, and to decide after much un- 
certainty what those proportions are ; and long before 
TE had investigated how plants obtain 
their carbon—on which point even now all botanists 
are кесу not fully agreed.* The his tory of the 
vcri a ent of our knowledge here is curious and 
nstructive, as it well illustrates what has so often 
Ба remar arked, pae a man 79 out on а line of 
notion w rs starting 
а 
of his initiatory w 
Beginning in irit separate lines of inquiry— 
that of Stephen Hales (1727), on the moisture 
imbibed and perspired by зуры, ; that of Priestly 
(1779), on the atmosphere and its continued 
purity; and that of бен (1779—1802), on the 
influence of light on plants—there came the recog- 
nition that plants decompose air, 
bonic d retain the carbon and 
liberate the .o u of Liebig, 
earnest workers, bu h 
solved. We cannot rest and ind we know all we need to 
know till we can trace every step in a plant's life, 
and know the conditions which a POE accelerate, 
or retard those changes. These are not mere sub- 
jects of entertaining interest for the laboratory 
worker ; their greatest practical importance is for 
the cultivator, who, by his arrangement and manage- 
ment, seeks to secure those conditions which will 
promote the changes leading to the results he 
d ‚ 
We believe we give much more attention to culti- 
grandfathers and great-grandfathers 
know why we do регеа things that are done, we are 
much ptm kas to what we ought t yb 
t the ratem of Гай rs to some 
of th 2 rowth on which 
uncertainty still seems to exist, some which may 
* Some hold pre а wame of it enters by the roots in solu- 
tion as carbonic ac ‘ 
