December 20, 1893. J 



Garden and Forest. 



527 



as to require much labor for daily care. It is well to locate 

 the greenhouse near the dwelling, as it can there be better en- 

 joyed. If the heater can be placed in the cellar it will be a 

 great advantage, both in saving space, in keeping dust away 

 from the plants, and for convenience of attention to the fire. A 

 greenhouse is a space enclosed by low walls with a slop- 

 ing glass-roof, in which there must be arrangements for 

 ventilation. The walls are best and most cheaply made 

 of a double thickness of boards with a lining of building- 

 paper. Tliese walls should be nailed to upright posts at 

 the corners and to others at distances of three or four 

 feet. A drip-board should be nailed on the top of each 

 side wall at the same slope as the proposed roof, and on its 

 lower edge a narrow projecting strip must be nailed to serve 

 for a gutter. A two by six inch board will make a good ridge 

 for a small house, and may be adjusted at the proper height 

 and in the centre or at one side, as it is intended to make a 

 span or three-quarter span roofed house. If the house is to 

 be covered with garden-sash it will be necessary only to fasten 

 a narrow strip, say, three-quarters by two inches, at every three 

 feet; but for a glazed greenhouse, sash-bars are mortised in 

 the ridge and drip-board at proper distances to receive the 

 glass. Cross-bars will be necessary to meet lower bars of ven- 

 tilating sashes. The ends of the house are finished with sash- 

 bars, in which the glasses should be fastened and butted, 

 rather than lapped. This class of house may be built by any 

 handy man used to carpenter's tools, and willcost for materials 

 in a house ten by fifteen feet about $75.00. It will be found 

 preferable to have side lights on the side walls, and these sash 

 will add a little to the cost. It is advisable to have the inside 

 of the house and all joints covered with white-lead in oil, but 

 for the outside I prefer emerald-green in a private garden. 

 This color wears well, and the house is not such a staring ob- 

 ject in the garden. It is difficult to see why a greenhouse 

 should be painted the usual white, for, at its best, it is simply 

 a necessary garden cover, which should be made as incon- 

 spicuous as possible. The heater and pipes for a ten by fifteen 

 foot house, if well bought, should cost about $50.00. A prop- 

 erly made base-burner will require attention only twice daily, 

 and should keep the house at sixty degrees in this climate on 

 half a ton of coal a month, or even less if the fire has more at- 

 tention. To sum up, then, for a capital expenditure of, say, 

 $200.00 or less, and a yearly expenditure of $15 00 to $2000, a 

 greenhouse may be had which will give profitable returns of 

 ffowers and plants at all seasons, and be a source of endless 

 pleasure. The workconnected with such a house is not beyond 

 the strength of the daintiest of the tender sex, if only someone 

 can be found to care for the ashes and to wash the pots. The 

 daily routine is mostly an inspection and proper watering of 

 each plant, and to one who knows his plants and enjoys them 

 this routine is a daily recurring pleasure, and not a task. 

 Elizabeth, N. J. J. ^V. Gerard. 



Laelia furfuracea. 



'X'HIS is one of the handsomest of the Mexican Lselias which 

 ■^ Hower in autumn and winter. It is not unlike L. autum- 

 nalis ; indeed, the one sometimes passes for the other. At 

 the same time, the difference between what may be termed 

 the types of the two species is sufficient to satisfy horticultu- 

 rists. L. autumnalis has longer pseudo-bulbs, larger flowers, 

 with petals and sepals sub-equal and narrowed to a very de- 

 cided acumination. In L. furfuracea the pseudo-bulbs are ovate, 

 and so similar to those of L. majalisas to be mistaken for it ; the 

 leaves are about six inches long by an inch in width, thick and 

 leathery, usually in pairs. The scape is from eighteen inches 

 to two feet in length, and it bears from six to ten flowers in a 

 cluster near the end. There is a figure of L. furfuracea in the 

 Botatiical Magazine, t. 3810 (1840), showing two scapes, each 

 bearing one flower only, but specimens in the herbarium show 

 more, and there are plants in flower in the gardens now with 

 from six to ten flowers on a scape. Each flower is three inches 

 across, the color varying from rich rose-purple to almost lav- 

 ender-rose. The petals are nearly twice as wide as the sepals, 

 and nearly rounded at the apex ; the three-lobed lip has the 

 two nearly white lateral lobes folded over the column ; and 

 the front lobe is oblong, reflexed, bright purple, with a yellow 

 three-ridged crest, and some purple lines at the base. The 

 odor of the flowers is peculiar, not agreeable as in L. autum- 

 nalis, but suggestive of rhubarb. 



Lfelia furfuracea is widely distributed in Mexico, whence it 

 was introdued about fifty years ago ; it had, however, been 

 found by Count Karwinsky about the year 1832 in the neigh- 

 borhood of Oaxaca at an elevation of nearly 8,000 feet. It has 

 since been imported in quantity many times, but had become 



a rare Orchid in English collections until this year, when it 

 was imported in quantity and sold as L. majalis. Tliere is 

 some variation in the color and size of the flowers produced 

 by the plants of this last importation, and it has in conse- 

 quence been suggested that they are of natural hybrid origin, 

 some of the plants having been offered at an auction sale in 

 London recently under the name of L. Marriottiana. It is, of 

 course, possible that these plants are of a superior type to 

 that hitherto grown as L. furfuracea ; certainly the plants at Kew 

 have flowered better than that species has hitherto. But, after 

 careful comparison with herbarium specimens and drawings 

 ot Lindley's L. furfuracea, no difference could be found to jus- 

 tify a distinctive name for it. The supposition that these plants 

 are natural hybrids invites attention to the fact that there are 

 already two L;elias suspiciously like L. furfuracea, which 

 Reichenbach named and described as natural hybrids, namely, 

 L. Eyermaniana, named in 1888 from a jjlant flowered by San- 

 der and suggested to be the offspring of L. majalis and L. au- 

 tumnalis ; tiie second, being that called L. Gouldiana, also flow- 

 ered in 1888. This is supposed to be a natural hybrid between 

 L. autumnalis and some other. 



La^lia furfuracea should be grown on blocks, or in baskets 

 suspended in an airy, sunny position in a cool house. We 

 have treated it as we do L majalis, which flowers here, when 

 started in the Cattleya-house, in spring, and hung on a tree 

 outside in the sun during summer and autumn. They like 

 plenty of water while growing, and a good baking after the 

 growth is finished. 



London. ^- iV. 



Oncidium Gravesianum. — This plant is one of the latest addi- 

 tions to the already long list of Oncidiums known to cultiva- 

 tors, many of which, however, have proved very short-lived 

 under artificial conditions ; this species, however, appears to 

 have no weakness of this sort, and increases every year. It is 

 a native of Pernambuco and was discovered and imported 

 with Cattleya labiata by Sander & Co. There is a figure of 

 O. Gravesianum in the Gardeners' Chronicle, May 21, 1892, but 

 it does not do justice to the variety in bloom with us, being 

 much more star-like in outline and suggesting that the flowers 

 were poor ones borne on newly imported plants. Our plants, 

 when received, were thick masses of copper-colored bulbs, 

 just as they had been torn from the branches of trees in Brazil, 

 and these are now flowering from the second season's growth 

 made in this country. There is a very strong resemblance in 

 the flowers to those of O. crispum, and a variety of this now 

 in bloom is almost identical in color with O. Gravesianum. 

 The resemblance ends with the flowers, the growth being very 

 distinct. The whole flower is a rich dark bronze, the inner 

 half of the lip being bright yellow ; there are over twenty flow- 

 ers on each of the three panicles borne on the plant, and they 

 appear to last a long time in good condition. O. Gravesianum 

 thrives well at the cool end of the Cattleya-house, where a 

 temperature of fifty degrees at night during winter seems to 

 suit it, and prevents the tendency to premature growth, which 

 is apparently a habit of this species when cultivated. 



Messrs. Linden's collectors state that in the district where 

 the Cattleya labiata was rediscovered no rain had fallen for 

 ten years, the plants being wholly dependent upon the heavy 

 dews for their supply of moisture, and this bit of circumstan- 

 tial evidence gives us a clue to the treatment of our acquisi- 

 tions from this region, which all bear, more or less, the 

 appearance of having been exposed to a fierce sun, and a 

 thorough ripening process, such as a scanty supply of water 

 would naturally bring about. 



The Orchid-weevil. — When writing recently of Dendrobium 

 Phalaenopsis I quite omitted to speak of the danger to cultivators 

 of introducing that dread pest the orchid-weevil, which has 

 left unmistakable evidence of its ravages on most of the plants 

 as they were imported. The fact is, I had not found any of the 

 insects since the plants came six months ago ; but the other 

 day there were two plants whose bulbs were discolored and 

 felt soft to the touch. A dissection disclosed several of the 

 grubs in each bulb. While there is, perhaps, no reason for 

 alarm when one is forearmed, it would be disastrous if, through 

 oversight, this pest should gain a footing in the Orchid-houses 

 throughout the country. There is no known remedy except 

 to cut off the affected bulbs and burn them. This is harsh 

 treatment, but it must be rigorously followed up if we would 

 keep our plants in health. I believe it is easier to detect the 

 insect in the bulbs of a Dendrobiimi than in those of a Cat- 

 tleya, as they are slender, and a cavity is more evident to the 

 touch, hence we need have no fear of being able to control 

 these invaders in the case of this Dendrobium. ^h ^ ,, 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. O. Or pet. 



