May 9, 18C5. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETIOULTUEE AND COTTAGE aABDBNEE. 



3S9 



terest of this meeting. First-class certificates were awarded 

 to Gymnogramma retrofracta, Rhododendron Henryanum, 

 a very promising variety, with large bold white flowers, re- 

 sembling R. Gibsoni ; Primula cortusoides grandiflora aiba, 

 a pure white variety ; Odontoglossum Pescatorei, a fine speci- 

 men ; and Saccolabium curviflorum. Many other fine Orchids 

 were exhibited in this collection — La3lia gi-andis, Bpidendrum 

 vitellinum, Cypripedium barbatum purpureum, Calantho 

 Darwiuii; plants of Bomarea Caldasii, Glycine frutescens 

 alba, Peperomia acuminata. Azalea Vesuvius, &o., were also 

 exhibited. A special certificate was given for the whole 

 collection, and a similar award for a collection of Azaleas in 

 great perfection. 



Mr. Bull sent a large and interesting collection of plants. 

 First-class certificates were awarded to Aubrietia purpurea 

 variegata, a very pretty spring-flowering plant, and Woodsia 

 polystichoides Veitchiana, a very elegant Fern. In this 

 collection was Rhododendron thibaiidioides, as unlike a 

 Rhododendron as a Rose ; Primula intermedia ; Podocarpus 

 macrophyllus albo-variegatus ; Aucuba longifolia varie- 

 gata, &c. Mr. Parker, Tooting, sent cut specimens of 

 his beautiful Rhododendron Countess of Haddington; also 

 an Iberis. Mr. Noble, Bagshot, exhibited two groups of 

 Clematis Fortuni, and C. Standishii, consisting of plants 

 of all sizes, from small cuttings to fine specimens, all of 

 which were profusely covered with most attractive flowers. 

 A special certificate was awarded to each group. Mr. 

 Piloher, gardener to S. Eucker, Esq., sent specimens of 

 Phalfenopsis Luddemanniana and Oattleya sp. amabilis (?), 

 both of which were awarded first-class certificates. Messrs. 

 Backhouse, York, sent four sntall plants, each a gem in 

 itself — Narcissus junoifolius. Primula oiliata, P. farinosa 

 acaulis, and Andromeda liypnoides — each of which received 

 a first-class certificate. Mr. "Wm. Paul sent a collection of 

 the late Mr. Donald Beaton's superb Nosegay Pelargoniums^ 

 which received a special certificate. The Chairman, the 

 Rev. J. Dix, was requested by the Committee to commend 

 to the Council's special notice the valuable and interesting 

 collection of plants exhibited by Mr. Veitch and Mr. Turner 

 as worthy of the Society's medals. 



Feuit Committee. — Several large tubers of Pink-eyed 

 Regent Potatoes were exhibited by Mr. W. Ingram, gar- 

 dener to the Duke of Rutland, Belvoir Castle, and which 

 were stated to have yielded at the rate of 20 tons an acre. 

 Lady Dorothy Nevill, Dangstein, sent a pot of jelly made 

 from the fruit of Passiflora quadrangularis, and which was 

 highly approved of. The following is the receipt for its 

 preparation : Peel and cut the fruit before it becomes over- 

 ripe; cover with spring water, and allow the fruit to boil 

 till quite tender. Then strain through a jelly bag, measure 

 the juice, and to one pint of juice add half a pound of loaf 

 sugar, the rind of four lemons, and the juice of six; then 

 boil very quickly tiU stiff enough to turn out of the mould. 

 A Queen Pine Apple of good size and well ripened, and a 

 dish of Apples, were also exhibited. 



The scientific meeting held on the same day as the above 

 Committees, was so numerously attended that the capacious 

 Council-room, though closely packed, was insuflicient to hold 

 »11 the audience, some of whom had to stand in the passage. 

 Altogether it was the most brilliant and successful meeting 

 which the Society has ever had, exceeding even the best of 

 those held in its palmiest days, and as Mr. Bateman justly 

 remarked at the conclusion, one among other signs of the 

 returning tide of prosperity. 



After the Chairman, W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., had congra- 

 tulated the meeting on there never having been so fine an 

 exhibition, nor finer things exhibited, the Rev. M. J. Berkeley 

 adverted to some of the objects at the last meeting, and 

 stated that the Ardisia then shown by Lady Dorothy Nevill 

 was Ardisia acuminata, var. decipiens of De CandoUe ; also, 

 that Dr. Hanstein had been successful in making the spo- 

 rangia of the Nardoo plant germinate, and referred those 

 who were curious about the matter to Pringsheim's Journal. 

 He then passed in review the plants shown on this occasion. 

 Among others noticed were Mr. Bull's variegated Chrysan- 

 tiiemum Sensation, the variegated Aubrietia, and the va- 

 riegated Podocarpus macrophyllus, which he remarked had 

 oae of its branches perfectly white, but such a branch though 



it would probably send out a green shoot, could not be propa- 

 gated from. With regard to the Clematises Fortuni and Stan- 

 dishii, the latter was perfectly hardy (and the former, coming 

 from the same place, would appear to be eqiially so), had 

 the merit of fiowering when only a few inches high, and that 

 a flower from a plant of that size had been measui-ed by the 

 Committee and found to be 5 inches across. Rhododendron 

 Henryanum was stated to be a hybrid of which R. Dalhousi- 

 anum was one parent, and another hybrid of very different 

 appearance was of the same parentage. Another Rhododen- 

 dron, thibaudioides, at first sight seemed more like a Thi- 

 baudia than anything else, but was, nevertheless, a true 

 Rhododendron. Some Rhododendrons were virulent poisons, 

 R. oinnabarinum being one of the worst, and the nearly- 

 related genus Gaultheria was also poisonous, though some of 

 the species had edible fruit. Kalmia latifolia, too, was 

 poisonous to birds, and those which fed upon it were them- 

 selves poisonous. The Alpines from Messrs. Backhouse, 

 Gloxinia Cordon celeste and Anthurium cordifolium from the 

 Society's garden, which was the same as A. magnificum 

 from Mr. Williams, Woodsia polystichoides Veitchiana, 

 Gymnogramma retrofracta, and other plants were also 

 pointed out. Mr. Berkeley then drew attention to a cone 

 of Wellingtonia, gathered by himself at the Marquis of 

 Huntley's, at Orton Longueville, and stated that he had 

 seen a seedling only three years old with cones on it. Mr. 

 Berkeley concluded by stating that Mr. Bateman would 

 make some observations on the Orchids. 



Mr. Bateman said, that before he came to Orchids, to show 

 that he had more than one idea in his head, he would bring 

 under their notice a tribe of plants hitherto in obscurity. 

 These plants, he remarked, are widely scattered over the 

 old and new world. They are to be found in Peru, New 

 Grenada, Central America, Japan, and the Indian Archi- 

 pelago. They are not unknown to botanists, but almost 

 entirely so to horticulturists. His attention was first 

 drawn to them from reading a work by Dr. Pceppig, the 

 Peruvian traveller, who ascended the Andes, and descended 

 the Amazon to Para, with no other companion than his 

 faithful dog ; and Dr. Poeppig stated that the young shoots 

 of a Thibaudia were so brillia,nt that they could be seen for 

 a league and a half, wrapping the Peruvian forest in a 

 mantle of flame. Making every allowance for the pure air 

 of the Andes permitting objects to be visible a long way 

 off, he (Mr. Bateman), thought that Dr. Poeppig had been 

 drawing somewhat largely on his imagination as travellers 

 sometimes do ; but afterwards having had his attention 

 more closely directed to tropical VaccinaceK, and having 

 procured some Thibaudias, he was struck with the colour of 

 the young shoots, one of which he held up in his hand ; and 

 imagining what the appearance of a forest would be after 

 the rains, when clothed with such young shoots, he thought 

 it would be doing Dr. Pceppig injustice not to believe his 

 account. The genus Thibaudia, continued Mr. Bateman, 

 was named by Humboldt, he believed, after a distinguished 

 foreign botanist, M. Thibaut, a descendant of whom was 

 then in the room. In the north of England and in Scotland, 

 next to the Heaths, the Vaccinaceie were the most promi- 

 nent feature of the vegetation. The Whortleben'y, the 

 Cranberry, the Bilberry, and the Cowberry were all native 

 Vacoinacese. There was another Vacoinaceous plant which 

 had the distinguished honour of being named after a former 

 President of the Society, Cavendishia nobilis, which had been 

 described by Dr. Lindley, but he believed it had not yet 

 been introduced, and it was to be hoped that Mr. Veitch, or 

 Messrs. Low, or Mr. Bull, or some other of our leading 

 nurserymen would stretch out their hands and obtain it. 

 Looking over Dr. Hooker's " Himalayan Plants," he came 

 across two graceful species of Vaocinaceae (Vaecinium ser- 

 pens and V. salignum), which were found growing at an 

 elevation of from 6000 to 7000 feet, along with Indian Rho- 

 dodendrons, and thinking that the same temperature and 

 treatment would suit them, he planted them together with the 

 Rhododendrons in a house facing the west, and one against 

 a wall, but it as well as those in the house failed. One, how- 

 ever, on a bracket in an architectural corridor having the 

 temperature of a warm greenhouse or cool stove, grew well. 

 Tropical Vaccinacese should be grown in niches in the shade, 

 or on brackets, so that their branches might hang down 

 like those of the Indian Dendrobiums. Thus treated they 



