August 19, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest 



333 



first glance I took it to be an umbelliferous plant. It is 

 not specially handsome, but it is rare and unlike most of 

 the Mallow family ; more like a Sida than any other mem- 

 ber of the order. Parthenium integrifolium is another plant 

 that I had not found until this summer. It is a composite 

 two to three feet high, with a flat corymb of white woolly 

 flowers, and it remains in bloom a long time. 



Clethra is an unusually handsome shrub just now, the 

 long spikes of white fragrant flowers almost completely 

 enveloping the bushes, which are very free from insect 

 depredators both on foliage and flower, are perfect. This 

 shrub merits a place in every flower garden ; it is easy of 

 culture ; in fact, it will grow fairly well without any culti- 

 vation. I have a dozen or more plants in my wild garden, 

 which receive no special care, and they are now full of 

 flowers. The Button-bush is also attractive and grows 

 everywhere in damp places. In the thickets wild Roses 

 are still blooming almost as luxuriantly as in June. The 

 Trumpet Honeysuckle is lovely, too, and combines well 

 with the Roses, while Hypericums and Spiraeas also add 

 their charm to every mass of shrubs. 



The two species of Meadow Beauty, Rhexia Virginica 

 and R. Marianna, are both conspicuous among the Grasses 

 in the damp Pines, along with Polygala lutea and P. san- 

 guines, while the Lysimachias and Swamp Loosestrife and 

 the pretty Coreopsis rosea are all here, and the flaming 

 Cardinal Flower stands above them all. The humming- 

 birds and brilliant butterflies collect about the flower, seem- 

 ingly attacted more by its brilliancy than Ly the sweets it 

 furnishes. 



Our Lilies are very showy now, especially L. superbum, 

 with its great pyramid of nodding deep orange flowers, 

 spotted on the inside with deep purple. Although it is 

 called the Swamp Lily and grows naturally in low, wet 

 ground, it thrives well in any position not too dry, and is 

 especially handsome when grown in peaty soil like that 

 usually furnished for Rhododendrons. Apios tuberosa is 

 clambering among the shrubs and plants, catching hold of 

 whatever it can reach, and often rising above its more 

 showy neighbors, laden with short dense racemes of sweet- 

 scented dull-purple flowers. Mikania scandens is also 

 climbing among the bushes with panicles of flesh-colored 

 flowers. The delicate rose-colored Sabbatias are coming 

 into bloom, their dainty star-like blossoms thickly scattered 

 among the feathery Grasses. They are among our most 

 graceful wild flowers. Several species of Gerardia are 

 showy now. G. purpurea and G. maritima, G. tenuifolia 

 and G. auriculata are here, and in the more dry Pines we 

 find the yellow one's, G. flava and G. quercifolia. 



All through August the Ponds are more attractive than at 

 any other time. Pond Lilies are still blooming, together with 

 a host of other lovely flowers. The little Lake Flower is 

 here, and so is the widely distributed Water-shield, Brase- 

 nia peltata. At least four continents can claim this plant. 

 It is common in Japan, Australia and Africa, and I have 

 read that it had been found in South America, but I believe 

 this is not as yet well authenticated. The curious Utricu- 

 larias, purple and yellow flowered, are abundant among 

 the Lilies, and the little sacks are well-laden with the 

 entrapped larvae of mosquito, chironomus and entromos- 

 cans, and the Droseras in the more shallow places are 

 entrapping the winged creatures, holding and folding their 

 leaves around them in such a way that one seldom 



escapes. 



Vineland, N.J. 



Mary Treat. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Odontoglossum Wattianum. — This is one of the most 

 beautiful of all Odontoglossums. It first flowered in the 

 nursery of Messrs. F. Sander & Co. in 1890, when Mr. 

 Rolfe described it as a probable natural hybrid between 

 O. luteopurpureum and 0. Lindleyanum. I saw a second 

 plant of it in flower last week which appeared to bear 



evidences that O. Harryanum was one of its parents. It 

 has tall-branched scapes, bearing numerous flowers with 

 sepals and petals as large as, and colored similarly to, 

 those of a good form of O. luteopurpureum. The lip is, 

 however, its most striking feature ; it is about two inches 

 long and an inch wide, the margins fringed and slightly 

 incurved, the apex acuminate, and the color white, with a 

 few large blotches of magenta-purple on the apical half 

 and numerous small spots of the same color on the basal 

 half. The lip hangs almost vertically, so that its colors are 

 well displayed. Hybrid Odontoglossums, so-called, are 

 generally disappointing as well as enigmatical, but O. Wat- 

 tianum, whatever its origin, is a gem which all Orchid 

 growers may honestly covet. It is to be hoped that Messrs. 

 Sander & Co. will succeed either in propagating a stock of 

 it or in importing it in quantity. 



Sobralias. — A large and well-cultivated collection of these 

 plants is now to be seen in the nurseries of Messrs. F. 

 Sander & Co. , where they receive special attention, grow- 

 ing and flowering like weeds. There are few more pleas- 

 ing Orchids than a good specimen of Sobralia macrantha 

 or S. xantholeuca when in full flower, while a collection 

 of a dozen or more distinct species and hybrids bearing 

 numerous large variously colored flowers is a picture to 

 delight the eye of any Orchid fancier. The best of the 

 hybrids are S. Amesiana (xantholeuca x Wilsoni) and S. 

 Veitchii (macrantha x xantholeuca), the former raised by 

 Messrs. F. Sander & Co., the latter by Messrs. J. Veitch & 

 Sons, and also by Messrs. Sander. Perhaps the most beau- 

 tiful of all Sobralias is the white form of S. macrantha. 

 This has enormous flowers of the snowiest white, except 

 the rich yellow of the lip. S. Wilsoni was introduced from 

 Central America in 1890. It is allied to S. Warscewiczii 

 and has large white flowers tinted with rose and a yellow 

 blotch on the lip. 



Hippeastri'h stylosum and H. reticulatum. — These two 

 closely allied species of Amaryllis are now in flower in 

 the stove, and they are decidedly beautiful, even when 

 compared with those more gaudy offspring of the genus 

 now so popular in the garden. Hippeastrum stylosum was 

 first introduced three-quarters of a century ago, but it ap- 

 pears to have been lost for some time until again secured 

 by Mr. O'Brien. It has bright green leaves an inch broad, 

 an erect stout scape bearing an umbel of from three to 

 eight flowers which are four inches long, trumpet-shaped, 

 the upper part of the segments elegantly recurved and the 

 color a close network of broad lines of rose-madder on a 

 groundwork of a paler hue. H. reticulatum is not so rare 

 a plant, and is grown here and there for its white-striped 

 leaves (I have never seen a plant of it with wholly green 

 leaves). Its flowers are like those of H. stylosum, but of a 

 brighter red color, the reticulation also being more marked. 

 It is an old garden plant, having been grown by Messrs. 

 Lee, of Hammersmith, more than a century ago. Neither 

 of these species has played any part in the production of 

 the race of hybrid Hippeastrums. 



Anthurium Sanderianum. — This is the name borne by an 

 extraordinary seedling or hybrid Anthurium which I 

 recently saw in flower at St. Albans. It resembles the 

 hybrids raised from A. Andreanum and allies in its leaf 

 characters, robustness of growth, etc., but it differs from 

 all others in having a spathe which is almost a normal leaf 

 in nervation and size, while in color it is scarlet in the 

 lower half, bright green in the upper half. The spathe in 

 Aroideue is, of course, generally understood to be a slightly 

 modified leaf, but it always differs widely in shape and 

 structure from the true foliage. Imagine a plant with an 

 inflorescence like that of A. Andreanum so far as regards 

 rachis, spadix and form, but in place of the ear-like spathe 

 colored bright scarlet, a large cordate leaf attached to the 

 spathe colored scarlet and green. In the distance this 

 spathe has the appearance of the leaf of a gaudily colored 

 Caladium. The plant bore about half a dozen inflorescences 

 in various stages of development, all showing the same 

 peculiar character. 



