Jane 6, 1865. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



429 



requiring foiu- montlis to ripen when forced, it would do so 

 in two, which was a very great recommendation. 



The Rev. M. J. Berkeley in commencing his remarks 

 observed that at the last meeting he had stated, in refer- 

 ence to an Amorphophallus, that it was fortunate the 

 plant was not in flower, otherwise everybody would have 

 been driven out of the room by its cadaverous odour. 

 The spathes of some of the Arum tribe were, neverthe- 

 less, brilliant in colom-, and, notwithstanding the generally 

 poisonous natui-e of the order, the tubers of some of the 

 species were edible. Even in our country those of Arum 

 maculatum, commonly known as " Lords and Ladies," which 

 is abundant in the Isle of Portland, were macerated, 

 dried, and sold in London under the name of Portland 

 Arrowroot. An Arisasma, after the poisonous alkali had 

 been neutralised by fermentation, was also eaten in Sikkim. 

 An unpleasant odour, it was remarked, was peculiar to many 

 poisonous plants, and several instances were quoted ; but in 

 no order of plants did such an insupportable odour occur as 

 in Fungi, and a coloui'ed drawing of three of the most 

 beautiful, but at the same time most disagreeable-smelUng 

 species, were exhibited. But by far the worst, observed Mr. 

 Berkeley, was Thelephora fcetida, which he met with three 

 years ago in Aberdeenshire, and it made his room smell 

 worse than the " tomb of all the Capulets," and he could 

 not conceal the odour till he had wrapped the fungus up in 

 twelve envelopes of the thickest brown paper. A beautiful 

 Maranta and Amaryllis from Mr. Veitch, the Alpines from 

 Messrs. Backhouse, and some other plants, were then briefly 

 mentioned, and, in connection with Ophrys fucifera, Darwin's 

 theory of the structure of that and other Orchidaceous 

 plants being adapted to certain insects, through whose 

 agency fertilisation is effected. Eobinia pseud-Acacia De- 

 caisneana was stated to be a true hybrid, and Cytisus Adami 

 was always considered as such by continental authorities, 

 but Mr. Berkeley did not believe that it was a hybrid at all, 

 but that it had arisen from the union of a cell of Cytisus 

 purpureus with one of C. Laburnum, and that by this cell- 

 grafting the properties of both species were transmitted to 

 the offspring (C. Adami). In the collection of fruits, &c., 

 from Egypt was the Chick Pea, Cicer arietinum, which was 

 used as a food for horses, and a peculiar narrow-leaved 

 Hemp, used for smoking and the preparation of hashish. 

 In reference to Pigs Mr. Berkeley remarked that there was 

 one species, the Sycamore Fig (Ficus sycamorus), which 

 grows on the stem of the Sycamore tree, and to which 

 allusion is made in the book of Amos — " I was no prophet, 

 neither was I a prophet's son ; but I was a herdsman, and a 

 gatherer of Sycomore fruit." The word, translated gatherer, 

 in our version means scratcher, and unless the Fig were 

 gently scratched or rubbed on the surface it was not edible, 

 and this seems to have been the employment of Amos. 

 Caprification was also effected by a species of Cynips, which 

 pierces the Figs, and sometimes by thrusting a straw dipped 

 in oil down the Fig. 



Mr. W. Wilson Saunders said that as allusion had been 

 made to the offensive odour of some of the Arum famUy, he 

 would state that when the spathe of Sauromatum guttatum 

 first opens, and this offensive odour is exhaled, it rises in 

 temperature. He had found that the temperature of the 

 spathe was 4° or 5" higher than that of the house, and this 

 not on one occasion only, for he had repeated the experi- 

 ment several times. This observation was not at all new, 

 but it had been doubted whether plants do give out heat. 



Mr. Bateman in commencing his observations on the 

 Orchids, directed attention to a plant of Ccelogyne pandu- 

 rata from the Society's garden. This, he said, coming from 

 the burning swamps of Borneo, would never succeed under 

 cool treatment ; on the contrary it required a very high 

 temperature. Young, in his " Night Thoughts," had said 

 that Nature never puts on the livery of a mourner, but this 

 plant presented pure black in its flowers. At almost every 

 meeting there had been some new Phalfenopsis, a name 

 which signified moth-Uke, Blume having mistaken the 

 flowers of the white species for a string of moths. To Mr. 

 Day belonged the entire merit of flowering for the first time 

 the new P. sumatrana, before the meeting, and which had 

 been introduced by Messrs. Low. At present it had only 

 three fiowers, but flowers, unlike young ladies, look worst 

 when they come out, and generally improve in after years. 



All who have studied art were aware that the grotesque 

 must be sought for in the gothic, and among plants it must 

 be looked for among Orchids. Africa had always had the 

 reputation of being fruitful in monsters, and she had lost 

 none of it in the genus Angrsecum, which were there most 

 numerous. In connection with the subject of plants having 

 taOs, he might mention that W. W. Buller, Esq., of Strete 

 Raleigh, had sent a plant of the Mexican Uropedium Lin- 

 denii to be named, asking whether it was a new species of 

 Cypripedium, having not only tails at each side of the flower, 

 but one in front as well, and Mr. Buller, referring to Darwin, 

 inquired whether these taUs were not intended to serve as 

 ladders by which insects might ascend to the flowers ; but, 

 added Mr. Bateman, " if I were an insect I woTild rather 

 trust to the stem of the plant than to these ricketty tails." 

 Now, although Orchids having tails were found in the New 

 "World, they are not like those of the African Orchids, there 

 the tail was found wh6*e it ought to be, and taOs, too, of 

 prodigious development, in Angrsecum sesquipedale 11 foot 

 long. Angrsecum caudatum was another beautiful species 

 found in Sierra Leone, and the pestilential swamps of 

 the Niger, but though it had been more than twenty- 

 five years in the countiy, and was easily fiowered, one 

 might almost count the times it had been seen. Another 

 African Angrsecum boasting of caudal appendages of great 

 length, was one of which he held up a specimen from the 

 herbarium of Kew, sent home by Speke and Grant. This he 

 should call Grantii, and he hoped that Englishmen ascend- 

 ing or " doing " the Nile, instead of chipping splinters from 

 the feet of Memnon, or the robes of Isis, would pluck the 

 flowers of Angrscum Grantii, which should belts name from 

 thenceforth. 



Captain Grant said that had he known that the plant was 

 perfectly new to science, he would have brought more, but 

 they had the greatest difficulty in preserving their speci- 

 mens on account of the water and insects. It was found on 

 a tree whose boughs were covered with green lichens in a 

 fine undulating country about three degrees north of the 

 equator. 



Mr. Bateman again rising exhibited a coloured drawing 

 made by Captain Grant of a plant which either that gentle- 

 men or some one else must bring to this country. Fifty 

 years ago there were not many persons who cared about 

 Orchids, and Linnteus, after he had gathered together as 

 many as he knew, said, when the world was fully explored 

 there might be 100, and now the genus Odontoglossum 

 alone comprised nearly 100 species, one of the most beautiful 

 of which was 0. citrosmum, as exemplified by the plants 

 shown by Messrs. Jackson, and Mr. Rucker's gardener, Mr. 

 PUeher. The foUowiug history of the plant was given by 

 Mr. Bateman in his "Monogram of Odontoglossum": — 

 " Early in the present century two Spaniards, La Llave and 

 Lexarza by name, settled at the Mexican town of Valladolid, 

 in the fertile province of Mechoacan. They were both 

 attached to botany, but the younger of the two, Lexarza, was 

 so attracted by. the beauty of the numerous Orchids of the 

 district, that to these he devoted himself with an ardour that 

 would have done honour even to the Lindleys and Reiohen- 

 bachs of our own day. As the result of his labours a little 

 work — 'Orchidianum Opusculum' he modestly styled it — 

 presently made its appearance, wherein about fifty species, 

 all at that time new to science, were described with remark- 

 able accuracy and skill. Among the number there was a 

 plant — Cuitlauzina pendula he called it — said to be of sur- 

 passing loveliness, and to form an undoubtedly new genus, 

 the distinctive characters of which were minutely given. As 

 time went on and the rage for Orchids developed itself in 

 Europe, a keen desire was naturally felt by cultivators to 

 add so fine a plant to their lists ; but although many col- 

 lectors visited Valladolid, and laid hands on nearly all the 

 other desirable Orchids described by Lexarza, still nothing 

 was heard of the Cuitlauzina, and on the cover of the latest 

 number of Dr. Lindle/s ' Folia Orchidacea,' its name may 

 be found in the list of genera 'unknown to the author.'" 

 About the same time Mr. Bateman had ventured to say that 

 a man might readily carry as many tufts of it on his arm 

 as would pay his expenses to Mexico and back, and leave 

 him a handsome surplus besides ; but happily the challenge 

 was not taken up. Yet all this wMle Cuitlauzina pendula 

 was amongst us, and, indeed, had been an established 



