February 5, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



53 



collectors of hybrid Cypripediums. Another hybrid addi- 

 tion to this genus is a cross between C. callosum and C. 

 Druryi, raised at St. Albans and named A. R. Smith. It has 

 large yellow and dull brown flowers, which are not as 

 attractive as the characters of the parents would lead one 

 to expect. Oncidium Wheatleyanum, although not new, is 

 a rare plant in English collections. It was shown in flower 

 this week by Sir Trevor Lawrence. I should call it a form 

 of O. varicosum, with a large blotch of red-brown at the 

 base of the deeply lobed labellum. 



Dendrobium Johnson.*. — A well-flowered example of this 

 Australian Dendrobe was among the plants exhibited at the 

 Drill Hall this week by Messrs. F. Sander & Co. It is a 

 distinct species, but disappointing horticulturally, the seg- 

 ments of the flowers being too narrow and the pose of the 

 inflorescence wanting that grace and fullness which charac- 

 terize the pick of the Australian members of this genus. 

 The flowers are smaller than those shown in published fig- 

 ures of this species. 



Vanda Charlesworthii. — Baron Schroeder exhibited a 

 plant of this rare Vanda last Tuesday. It is supposed to 

 be a natural hybrid between V. coerulea and V. Bensoni, 

 and was described by Mr. Rolfe in The Orchid Review last 

 year, page 323. The flowers are two and a half inches 

 across, nearly white, veined and marbled with rose-purple, 

 the sepals and petals resembling those of V. coerulea in 

 texture and form, while the lip is like that of V. Bensoni. 

 The leaves are narrower than those of V. coerulea and the 

 scapes are erect, the plant exhibited having two scapes, 

 with an aggregate of seven flowers. 



Cypripedium Mastersianum. — This hitherto rare species 

 was imported probably from Borneo to Kew nearly twenty 

 years ago, and was described by Reichenbach in 1879 from 

 materials supplied by Messrs. Veitch & Sons, and named in 

 compliment to Dr. Masters, F. R. S. , the distinguished editor 

 of The Gardeners' Chronicle. It has broad leaves about a 

 foot long,deep green with paler tessellations, and erect scapes 

 fifteen inches high, each bearing a large flower, probably 

 the largest in the genus. The dorsal sepal is orbicular, 

 bright green, with a broad margin of white and a fringed 

 edge; the petals are horizontal, spathulate, nearly two 

 inches long, dull red, with black-purple warts near the base 

 and along the upper margin ; the pouch is very large and 

 inflated and is colored reddish brown, shaded with green and 

 spotted with purple. Messrs. Sander & Co. have succeeded 

 in rediscovering and importing a large quantity of plants 

 of this species and offered 5,000 plants of it for sale by auc- 

 tion recently. The plants were in excellent condition and 

 realized fair prices. 



Primula Sinensis. — A special feature of the last meeting 

 of the Royal Horticultural Society was a large collection of 

 the forms of Primula Sinensis, exhibited by Messrs. H. 

 Cannell & Sons, Svvanley, who have long held a foremost 

 place among the trade growers and breeders of this useful 

 winter-flowering greenhouse plant. Seven large houses 

 are filled with it in all its best forms, about ten thousand 

 plants being grown annually for seeds. The best white 

 variety is one called White Perfection, which has short- 

 stalked large heads of flowers, each one and a half inches 

 across, conspicuously imbricated, the segments wavy and 

 crisp-edged. Equally beautiful and large in flower is a 

 carmine-pink variety called Cannell's Pink. These two 

 varieties come true from seed and are very floriferous. 

 They have, however, one fault, from a purely decorative 

 point of view, a fault common to nearly all the improved 

 strains of this Primula — namely, the flower-stalks are too 

 short, and, consequently, the plants have a squat, stubby 

 look even at their best. Messrs. Cannell are, however, 

 alive to this defect, and for several years now they have 

 aimed at producing a race with looser, taller trusses. They 

 have made considerable progress in this direction, their 

 Pyramidalis strain, bred from a loose, tall-stalked variety 

 known as White Lady, crossed with the short-stalked, large- 

 flowered forms, being a decided improvement. Twenty 

 years ago long-stalked Primulas were discarded as weedy 



and lacking finish, but Messrs. Cannell were fortunate in 

 securing this White Lady variety, which had been kept for 

 years in the famous garden of Sir George Macleay, at 

 Pendell Court, and with its aid they are rectifying the mis- 

 takes, or, at any rate, are going back to strains ignored or 

 repudiated by recent breeders. These fine varieties come 

 true from seeds, a remarkable fact, but one about which 

 there can be no question. A new variety called Cannell's 

 Gem, with rich carnation-pink flowers, of which a few 

 plants in flower were shown by Messrs. Cannell, is certain 

 to be popular on account of its color. It has yet to be 

 tested as a seed-bearer, as sometimes a beautiful variety is 

 practically barren when fertilized with its own pollen. 

 Swanley Blue is a deep mauve-flowered variety, which is 

 the nearest approach to a true blue Chinese Primrose so 

 far produced. 



London. '> • Watson. 



Cultural Department. 

 Hybridizing- Nymphjeas. 



T T is generally supposed that Nymphaeas are difficult to 

 ■*■ hybridize, an opinion based on the numerous failures to 

 cross some of the species. Most of these attempts, however, 

 have been made with species which are not closely related to 

 each other ; for instance, the pollen of N. ccerulea has been 

 tried on flowers of N. odorata or N. alba, and pollen of N. 

 Devoniensis or N. rubra on some white-flowering hardy kind. 

 It is difficult to imagine a cross between the species men- 

 tioned above, because their habits of growth are so widely 

 different. 



For several years I have experimented in hybridizing some 

 of the kinds with satisfactory results, but my successes have 

 been scored when the seed parent and pollen parent were 

 closely related. To show how easily Nymphaaas are hybrid- 

 ized one has only to take a plant of the white-flowered N. gra- 

 cilis and flower it in company with any of the Zanzibar section. 

 The result will be that, without any other interference than 

 that effected by the wasp-like insects which infest the blooms, 

 it is next to impossible to get seed that will come true. The 

 seedlings will show foliage almost similar to that of N. gracilis, 

 but the flowers will be either light or dark purple, instead of 

 white, and in shape pretty nearly intermediate between the 

 Zanzibar varieties and N. gracilis. Again, if the true dark 

 purple-llowered N. Zanzibarensis be isolated from the lighter- 

 flowered form called azurea and from all others related to it, 

 many of the seedlings raised from it will have flowers every 

 bit as deep in color as those of the parent, whereas if seed- 

 lings be raised from a plant which has grown in company with 

 its lighter-flowered forms those seedlings will have flowers of 

 an intermediate color. 



In the night-blooming section all the kinds are easily crossed, 

 and any one having the facilities, who will spend a half hour 

 or so over a bloom, can have hybrids of his own raising. 

 Take, for instance, the well-known Nymphaja Lotus, which, so 

 far as my experience has shown, sets and ripens more seed 

 than any other of the night-bloomers, unless it be its variety 

 dentata. As the seed parent I prefer N. Lotus to N. dentata, 

 as its flowers are of such a graceful outline. When crossed 

 with N. Sturtevantii, for example, they preserve the cup- 

 shaped form and make a splendid bloom. The ideal cross 

 between these two well-known kinds is seen in the hybrid 

 which has been named Smithiana. In form the flower partly 

 resembles each parent, being larger than that of X. Lotus, the 

 seed parent, and a trifle smaller than that of N. Sturtevantii. 

 The color is not intermediate between them, however, but is 

 a delicate blush. 



I have never been able to gather seed from X. Sturtevantii, 

 although I have watched it every season since it was scut out. 

 The pollen grains from its flowers are efficacious enough on 

 other flowers. N. Smithiana, too, has not set any seed so far. 

 The first season's flowers of this hybrid were rather disap- 

 pointing, being quite small; this was partly due to a great 

 profusion of growths from the little tuber which was set out 

 along with the plant. All of this section, by the way, ought to 

 be planted without tubers, as they are then more' apt to con- 

 centrate their energy in one crown and produce very much 

 larger flowers. 



The large white-flowered Nymphjea dentata sets - 

 time when properly fertilized with pollen from X. Devonie 

 or N. rubra. Every intervening shade between the white and 

 deep red may be obtained, such as is seen in the hybrids 



