112 



Garden and Forest. 



[March 5, 1890. 



As is usually the case at these meetings, the Orchids were 

 well represented. A strong" spike of Bowers of Phala-nopsis 

 F. L. Ames, recently figured in Gardkn and Forest, was 

 exhibited by Messrs. Veitch, who also sent examples of 

 Gypripedium Lathamianum, a handsome hybrid from C. 

 Spicerianwn and C. villosum, and especially interesting as 

 being the first known instance of precisely the same result 

 having been obtained by crossing two species both ways. 

 As a rule, the difference between the progeny of two parents 

 crossed differently is well marked and often wide. C. Roths- 

 childianum was exhibited in flower, the raceme bearing three 

 very fine blooms. It was named C. Elliotianum, but a compari- 

 son between it and the figure in the Botanical Magazine proved 

 the name erroneous. There are good reasons for believing 

 that the difference between C. Roths childianum and C. Ellioti- 

 anum is merely varietal, and that in many collections the same 

 plant does duty for both. A handsome variety of C. cardinale 

 named Vanner's variety was remarkably like your native 

 Moccasin flower, C. spcctabile. 



Odontoglossum ramosissimnm, introduced in 1871, remains a 

 rare plant, although it is distinct and handsome. The flowers 

 are two inches across, full, pale rose-purple, showing white 

 here and there, wavy, the lip narrow and reflexed. A strong 

 plant, bearing a stout, many-flowered panicle, was shown and 

 received a first-class certificate. This species is very distinct 

 and unusual in color amongst Odontoglossums. Some won- 

 derful specimens of Ccelogyne cristata, Cypripedium insigne, 

 Ly caste Skinneri and other well known Orchids were shown as 

 examples of exceptional culture. TheCypripedium wasagrand 

 mass of foliage, and bore over a hundred expanded flowers. 

 It was in a twelve-inch pot. 



Greenhouse Rhododendrons were shown by Messrs. Veitch, 

 amongst them being some beautiful deep colored hybrids re- 

 cently obtained from R. multicolor, a Sumatran species intro- 

 duced about five years ago, and distributed by Messrs. Veitch 

 under the name of R. Curtisii. The charm of these new hy- 

 brids is in their dwarf, bushy, compact habit, small, dark green 

 leaves and the brilliancy of their (lower-colors. The Rhodo- 

 dendrons from the mountains of the Malaya regions are prov- 

 ing as plastic and prolific of beautiful garden plants, under the 

 manipulation of Messrs. Veitch, as did the Andean Begonias 

 in their hands about ten years ago. I believe I have already 

 related in your paper the success met with at Kew in the cul- 

 tivation of this class of Rhododendron in the large winter gar- 

 den, where the temperature in winter sinks to forty-five 

 degrees. It is quite clear that whilst they grow and flower 

 freely when treated as stove or warm house plants, almost 

 every one of the Malayan race of Rhododendrons may be suc- 

 cessfully managed in a cold house. They require a rich peat 

 soil and plenty of moisture at all times. 



Washingtonia filifera. — The article by Mr. Parish on the 

 Palms of California is a most interesting and valuable contri- 

 bution to our knowledge of some of the most useful of 

 European garden Palms. What he states with regard to Wash- 

 ingtonias and their names is fully borne out by observation 

 here. I do not believe there is even a varietal difference be- 

 tween the plants called W. filifera and W. robusta. This con- 

 clusion was arrived at after seeing great numbers of these 

 plants on the Riviera, where Washingtonias are very com- 

 mon in gardens. In a report on the garden plants of the 

 Riviera which I wrote for the Kew Bulletin in December last 

 the following particulars of these plants were given. I quote 

 them as interesting when placed by the side of Mr. Parish's 

 statistics re the distribution and dimensions of Washingtonias 

 in California : 



" Equaling the Canarian Phcenix (P. Canariensis) in its ex- 

 tensive use, in its proportions and in rapidity of growth, is the 

 Washingtonia. The growth made by this Palm on the Riviera 

 is astonishing, and it appears to thrive equally well in all the 

 stations. There must be hundreds of thousands of plants of 

 it in the gardens and nurseries visited, and the prices asked 

 indicate that there is a great demand for it. . . . It does 

 not appear to have been introduced into European gardens 

 before 1875, and is therefore a comparatively new Palm. Not- 

 withstanding this, there are some very large specimens of it 

 on the Riviera, where it is called Brahea or Pritchardia. I 

 could not see any characters in the plants pointed out as W. 

 robusta to distinguish them from W. filiferaj the reddish hueof 

 the petiole at the base appears to be the principal difference. 



" At Villa Valetta, Cannes, on a sloping lawn in front of the 

 house, is a grove of about sixty magnificent specimens of this 

 Palm, to me a marvelous sight. Most of these plants had 

 huge onion-shaped stems, 'ten feet in circumference at the base 

 and about ten feet high, some even higher. The crown of 

 foliage was twenty feet through, and was composed of from 



fifty to eighty leaves, each with a stout armed petiole five feet 

 long, a blade four and a half feet across, and ornamented 

 with numerous white, hanging filaments a foot long. I was 

 assured that the largest of these plants was not more than 

 twelve years old, and from the date of the introduction of the 

 species this cannot be far from correct. At Nice I saw a 

 specimen the stem of which was fifteen feet high. In exposed 

 situations within a few yards of the sea this Palm is perfectly 

 healthy." 



The dead leaves are not allowed to remain on the stem, con- 

 sequently the appearance of this Palm on the Riviera is very 

 different from that of the wild plants as described by Mr. 

 Parish. The Riviera gardeners manure their Palms most lib- 

 erally and in dry weather they are kept well supplied with 

 water. 



Mr. Parish does not mention W. Sonorce, a new species de- 

 scribed by Dr. Sereno Watson, who sent a few seeds of it to 

 Kew in 1888, from which we have now about a dozen good 

 plants. At present their most striking character is the deep 

 crimson-brown of the petioles and stem. 



London. W. WatsOll. 



Hypericum Kalmianum. 



Hy pericum Kalmianum was one of the first of the Ameri- 

 can Saint John's Worts described, having been discovered 

 by the Swedish botanist, Kalm, whose name was bestowed 

 upon it by Linnseus, probably at Niagara Falls, which he 

 visited in 1750. It is a straggling bush, growing to a 

 height of two or three feet, with rather contorted four- 

 angled stems, covered with thin, exfoliating reddish bark, 

 slender two-edged branchlets, and crowded oblanceolate 

 pale leaves one to two inches long. The flowers are bright 

 yellow, an inch across, and begin to open early in July. 

 The pods are ovate and five-celled, a character which best 

 distinguishes this species from the nearly allied H. prolifi- 

 cum of the middle and western states, the pods of which 

 are three-celled. 



Hypericum Kalmianum (see page 113) is rather a rare 

 plant, being confined to lake and river-cliffs from the Falls 

 of Niagara, where it is found on Goat Island, to the northern 

 Lakes. Like the other shrubby Hypericums, it is an 

 excellent garden plant, although less showy in flower than 

 some of the other species. They all bloom at midsummer, 

 when few shrubs are in flower ; and grow easily, flower 

 profusely, and are not particular about the treatment they 

 receive. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



A Giant African Aloe. 

 A. Bainesii. 



THE picture on page 1 1 5 is taken from a photograph 

 made in Grahamstown, South Africa, and represents 

 one of the most remarkable of the many arborescent spe- 

 cies of Aloe found on the African continent. A. Bainesii 

 was first described by Mr. Thiselton Dyer, the present 

 Director at Kew, in the Gardeners' Chronicle in 1874, and 

 it was named in honor of its discoverer, Thomas Baines, 

 the African explorer, whose book, "Explorations in South- 

 west Africa," is a most interesting account of his journey 

 from Walwisch Bay to the Victoria Falls, which he accom- 

 plished in 1861-62. 



The discovery of the Aloe is referred to in this book at 

 pages 33, 34. Baines was at the time about a hundred miles 

 east of Walwisch Bay, and near the Swa-kop River, when 

 he noticed "what seemed like an ordinary Dragon-tree or 

 Baobab, a familiar object to the South African traveler. On 

 approaching to sketch it more minutely I found that it was 

 a gigantic Aloe. Kneeling on the ground so as to bring 

 my arms low enough to embrace the solid trunk, I found 

 its circumference to be nearly twelve feet. Above this it 

 divides into five stems, each of which at nearly the same 

 height sent forth branches as thick as my arm, of uniform 

 size, even to the top, where they were crowned each by the 

 well known star of Aloe-leaves, and adorned with three or 

 more magnificent spikes of yellow flowers. The stems 

 were smooth and round; but at the base the bark appeared 



