March 31, 1863.] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



237 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day i Day 



of ! of 



M'nth Week. 



i 





Weather 



near London in 1862. 







- 



- 





MARCH 31— APRIL 6, 1868. 





Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun 



Sets. 



Moon 



Rises 



and Sets 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 before 

 Sun. 



Day of 



Year. 



Barometer. 



Thermom. 



Wind. 



Rain in 

 Inches. 



31 



To 



Wood Sorrel flowers. 



29.623—29 479 



degrees. 

 60—34 



S.W. 



.08 



m. h. 

 41 al'5 



m. h. 



28 af 6 



m. h. 

 44 3 



12 



m. s. 

 4 21 



90 



1 



W 



Water Fennel flowers. 



29.844-29.769 



58-48 



S.W. 



.02 



33 5 



31 6 



5 4 



13 



4 2 



91 





Th 



Early Orchis flowers. 



29.639-29.497 



57—56 



S.W. 



.24 



36 5 



32 6 



24 4 



14 



3 44 



92 



3 



F 



Good Friday. 



29.786-29.576 



63—35 



S.W. 



— 



34 5 



33 6 



46 4 



15 



3 26 



93 



4 



S 



Spider Orchis. [1804. 



30.011—29.980 



60-38 



S.W. 



— 



32 5 



35 6 





O 



17 



3 8 



94 



5 



Son 



Easter Sunday. W. Gilpin died, 



30.050—29.883 



56—47 



S.W. 



.04 



29 5 



37 6 



51 8 



2 50 



95 



6 



M 



Easter Monday. 



29.914-29.865 



56-46 



S.W. 



.12 



27 5 



38 6 



7 10 



18 



2 33 



96 



Meteorology of the Week — At Chiswick, from observations during the last thirty-six years, the averatre hiffhest and lowest 



temperatures of these days are 55.7° and 38-3° 



respectively. The greatest heat, 78°. occurrec 



on the 





16™, 



on the 1st, in 1838. During the period 143 days were fine, and oh 109 rain fell. 











FERTILISATION OF ORCHIDS. 



AD Mr. Anderson asked me 

 two days ago for any facts 

 illustrative of his case of 

 unopened flowers of Cat- 

 tleya crispa and Dendro- 

 bium cretaceum producing 

 seed-capsules, I could have 

 given no sort of informa- 

 tion ; nor can I now ex- 

 plain the fact. By an odd 

 coincidence, yesterday I received 

 a very interesting letter from Dr. 

 Hermann Cruger, the Director of 

 the Botanic Garden at Trinidad, 

 who informs me that certain na- 

 tive species, and native species alone, of Cattleya, Epi- 

 dendrum, and Schomburghkia, " are hardly ever known 

 to open their flowers, but which nearly always set fruit." 

 In answer to Dr. Cruger, I have asked him to look at the 

 seed or send me some, and inform me whether it appears 

 good. 



Will Mr. Anderson have the kindness to send me a 

 few seeds produced by his unopened flowers? 



I further asked Dr. Cruger whether these Orchids in 

 their native haunts never open their flowers. I can 

 hardly believe that this can be the case, seeing how 

 manifestly adapted the structure of their organs of fruc- 

 tification is to the action of insects. But it is known that 

 several plants, such as Violets, Campanulas, Oxalis, &c, 

 produce two kinds of flowers : one sort adapted for self- 

 fertilisation, and the other sort for fertilisation by insect 

 agency or other means. In some cases the two kinds of 

 flowers differ very little in structure ; and it occurs to 

 me as possible that something of this kind may occur 

 with Orchids. 



Dr. Cruger further informs me that with certain Or- 

 chids, as in those which do not open their flowers, the 

 pollen-masses after a time become pulpy ; and though re- 

 maining still in situ, emit their pollen-tubes, which reach 

 the stigma, and thus cause fertilisation. 



An excellent observer, Mr. J. Scott, of the Royal Bo- 

 tanic Gardens of Edinburgh, will, I am sure, permit me 

 to state that he has been making similar observations, 

 and has seen the pollen-tubes emitted from the pollen- 

 masses whilst still in their proper positions. 



These facts were all unknown to me when I published 

 my small work on the Fertilisation of Orchids ; but I 

 ought, perhaps, to have anticipated their occurrence, for I 

 saw the pollen-tubes emitted from the pollen within the 

 anthers in the Bird's-nest Orchid, and likewise in mon- 

 strous flowers of the Man Orchis. This latter fact seems 

 related to Mr. Anderson's remark, that flowers of an 

 imperfect character, wanting a petal or sepal, had a great 

 tendency to produce seed-capsules. 



These curious observations by Dr. Cruger, Mr. An- 

 derson, and Mr. Scott, convince me that I have in my 

 No. 105.— Voi. IV., New Series. 



work underrated the power of tropical Orchids occasion- 

 ally to produce seed without the aid of insects ; but I 

 am not shaken in my belief that their structure is mainly 

 related to insect agency. With most British Orchids this 

 conclusion may be looked on as established. 



I will only add that since the publication of my work, 

 a number of persons have set seed-capsules with various 

 tropical Orchids. 



Charles Darwin, Down, Bromley, Kent. 



HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE 

 CHRYSANTHEMUM. 



Mr. Glenny wrote, about eighteen months since, a 

 very interesting article on the introduction of the Chinese 

 Chrysanthemum into England. He says it flowered for 

 the first time in this country at Mr. Colville's Nursery, 

 King's Road, Chelsea, in November, 1795, in which year 

 the name Chrysanthemum (Golden Flower), was first given 

 to it by Linnaeus, who distinguished two species, calling 

 the one with a small flower, indicum ; and the other with 

 a large flower, sinense. But after his time a diversity 

 of opinions arose among botanists as to the proper name, 

 some of them saying the plant belonged to the Anthemis 

 grandiflora, Anthemis artemisisefolia, and Anthemis sti- 

 pulacea (Camomiles). Modern English writers call it 

 Chrysanthemum, with the exception of Sweet, who con- 

 siders it a species of Pyrethrum, or Feverfew, and places 

 it under the head of Dendrathema (shrubby kinds). These 

 differences of opinion arise from the small membranous 

 scales resembling chaff found on the receptacle of the 

 flowers of the Chinese Chrysanthemum at the base of the 

 florets, such being characteristic of the genus Anthemis, 

 while the receptacle of the true genus Chrysanthemum is 

 without chaff-like scales. Nevertheless, they are in my 

 opinion both the same genus. 



In the " Horticultural Society's Transactions " of 1831, 

 a history of the Chrysanthemum is given by Mr. Sabine, 

 who says they were cultivated in the gardens of Holland, 

 and described by the celebrated Breynius as far back as 

 1688. He calls it Matricaria japonica, and speaks of six 

 varieties. They appear afterwards to have been lost, as 

 no gardener in 1821 knew anything of them. 



In January, 1826, Mr. Sabine, again, referring to the 

 Chrysanthemum, says, speakiDg of the rapid progress the 

 flower had made in this country in a few years, that the 

 shows of the flower at the Society's gardens in 1824 and 

 1825, had been acknowledged by its admirers to be, 

 taking them as a mass, the most splendid and gorgeous 

 exhibitions ever seen even in the gayest time of the year. 

 The Show consisted of seven hundred pot plants. They 

 b«gan to bloom in October, and continued till December, 

 with now and then changing a few of them for later- 

 blooming ones, thus enlivening the garden at a period 

 when there was nothing else to attract attention. Many 

 of these varieties were collected by Mr. Parks in China 

 and Bengal during 1821, and some of them were sent 

 home by the Society's gardener, Mr. John Potts. 



No. 757.— Vol. XXIX., Old Series. 



