186 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 8, 1870. 



though this year the beds in themselves are as good as they 

 can be. We have no failures, though the yellow Pansies are 

 hardly up to the mark for bedding. Beds 10 and 11 are grand, 

 and as for 2 and 3 we cannot describe their glories. My father 

 wishes Mr. Peach could see them and another bed or two that 

 we have elsewhere of William Thomson and Douglas Pearson, 

 and then he says he would not write about such rubbish as 

 Waltham Seedling and others as useless. Bed 8 is also grand, 

 and you must tell everybody who wants an effective bed to 

 grow Mis3 Kingsbury. 



The following is the way the beds are planted : — Bed 1, Cen- 

 raurea candidissima, edged with Amaranthus melaneholicus 

 tuber, with a terra cotta vase in the centre filled with Violet 

 Hill Nosegay, and margined with a pretty variegated Ivy-leaved 

 Geranium ; all very good. Bed 2, Biyard Geranium, edged 

 with Cerastium tomentosum. Bed 3, William Underwood, 

 edged the same as bed No. 2. Beds 4 and 5, Amy Hogg Gera- 

 nium, edged with 

 yellow Pansies. Beds 

 6 and 7, Geranium 

 Madame Ruders- 

 dorff. Bed 8, Miss 

 Kingsbury Gera- 

 nium, edged with 

 Blue Lobelia. Bed 

 9, Bijou Geranium, 

 edged the same as 

 bed 8. Miss Kings- 

 bury is the best 

 white-edged Gera- 

 nium. - Beds 10 and 

 11, Mrs. Pollock Ge- 

 ranium, edged with 

 Cerastium tomento- 

 sum and Lobelia 

 speciosa in links of 

 about 15 inches long 

 all round the beds, 

 and a few plants of 

 Verbena venosa in- 

 terspersed among 

 the Geraniums, the 



effect of which is good. Beds 12 and 13 are Verbena Purple 

 King, edged with Cloth of Gold Geranium, and are very good. 

 All the plants have grown well, and we could not wish them to 

 be better. All we want is a different arrangement of colours. 

 Now we hope our old friends will help us — we should have 

 liked to have said our " old Gooseberries." — Sarah Ann, Clara, 

 and Airy Alice, Geranium Cottage, Beulah. 



[The reading of your letter does one good. We are sorry to 

 say that we feel almost helpless as regards advisiDg you to do 

 better. One thing we may note, however, with respect to the 

 garden ; the centre is as simple and neat as it well can be, con- 

 sisting of a circle, with another circle divided into four clumps 

 round it. The circles and two ends are all that could be wished, 

 as all are bounded by curved iines so pleasant to the eye. The 



two clumps 6 and 7, with their irregular six-sided straight lines, 

 break in on the general regularity. A bed smaller, but shaped 

 like those round the circle, made with the ends concave to 

 suit the circle on each side, would, we think, be more appro- 

 priate. As you do things so well, we would like to see you try 

 a 14-inch mowing machine, even if two should work it. You 

 cannot tell how much we admire the good sense which leads 

 you, though having separate beds under your especial control, 

 yet to agree so to plant that the whole garden shall form a 

 harmonious whole. Under similar circumstances we often see 

 nothing but confusion, owing to each young lady following her 

 individual tastee. Where there cannot be such agreement as 

 to planting, as in your case, we think it best that every young 

 lady should have a bed or beds, far apart, so that each could be 

 judged separately. 



Iu making a change in No. 1, you could place scarlet in the 

 centre of the vase, draped as now, or with the white Ivy- 

 leaved Geranium ; 

 then fill the bed with 

 Coleus Verschaffelti, 

 and edge with the 

 Centaurea, or, better 

 still, with Polemo- 

 nium creruleum va- 

 riegatum, as at Wo- 

 burn. The four beds 

 round you can hard- 

 ly better, and you 

 might edge all alike, 

 or two and two ; but 

 if you had a whitish 

 edging for No. 1 we 

 would not have Ce- 

 rastium for 2 and 3, 

 but a mixture of 

 variegated Alyssum 

 and blue Lobelia. 

 Instead of yellow 

 Pansies we would 

 edge the other two 

 with Golden Fever- 

 few. If you did not 

 object to the sameness, we would edge all these four beds with a 

 string of small plants of the Feverfew, and have a line behind of 

 the Alyssum and the Lobelia mixed ; 6 and 7 might be edged 

 with Cerastium, and a thin line of purple Verbena inside would 

 improve it. Nos. 8 and 9 we would edge with a bluish purple 

 Verbena, with a string of Cerastium round it, and thus the 

 four beds would be something alike ; 10 and 11 cannot be 

 improved ; we think we see the looping of the Lobelia. 12 and 

 13 are no doubt neat, but the big leaf of the Cloth of Gold 

 is rather too much for the Purple King Verbena. We would 

 be inclined to centre the beds with yellow Calceolaria, and 

 then fill up with the purple Verbena. The " Old Gooseber- 

 ries " have expressed even these ideas, however, with great 

 diaidence. — Ens.] 



WINTER-BLOOMING ORCHIDS.— No. 6. 



T.^T.TA , 



I shall now resume my brief notes upon this subject; I 

 very much regretted my inability to continue them in due 

 course, but 1870 has been an unusually busy season with me, 

 and the exceptional weather we have experienced has materi- 

 ally increased my work. 



The genus Ljelia bears a strong resemblance to Cattleya, 

 and to an ordinary observer it would be impossible to point 

 out the difference, which lies only in the last-named having 

 four pollen masses, whilst the other has eight; indeed, one of 

 the highest living authorities upon these plants merges both 

 genera into Epidendrum, an arrangement which is not likely 

 to find much favour with English Orchid-growers, however 

 correct it may be in a scientific point of view. 



The genns now under consideration contains many fine 

 species, some of them summer-flowering, which, as a matter of 

 course, must be left out in this place, and I will, therefore, 

 proceed to give a brief description of the charms, and how to 

 produce them, of the kinds flowering in winter. A fact very 

 much in favour of these plants is, that most of them are 

 amenable to cool treatment ; those which require to be grown 

 in pots should have good drainage, and be potted in equal 



parts of fibrous peat and sphagnum moss, adding some pieces 



of charcoal. During the growing season an abundant supply 



of water may be given, both from the watering-pot and syringe, 



at the same time strictly observing that none is allowed to lie 



in the sheaths which envelope the young growths, for if this 



occurs ruin is most likely to follow and that speedily. After 



growth is completed gradually withhold water until the short 



dull days set in, when only just sufficient must be given to 



prevent shrivelling until the flowers begin to swell, when a 



little extra warmth and moisture will be advantageous. Should 



any of the plants show signs of shrivelling remove them to a 



warmer place and water carefully, it is a sign the energies of 



the plant have been overtaxed. 



L. acuminata should be grown upon a block of wood, and 



I made fast to it with a little sphagnum moss. I have seen it 



j grown in pots, bnt it makes comparatively little root, and in a 



j pot it is apt to rot. The flowers are produced, several to- 



I gether, upon the top of a slender scape proceeding from the 



I apex of the short, somewhat ovate pseudo-bulbs. The leaf is 



j short and oblong, thick, and dark green. The sepals and petals 



i are of a waxy white ; the lip is also white, stained towards the 



