March 12, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



127 



in form and size the Bermuda Lily; the tube is six inches long-, 

 trumpet-shaped, two inches across at the mouth, where there 

 are five spreading segments, each two inches long and one 

 and a half inches wide, reflexed and pointed at the tips. The 

 whole of the corolla is pure shining white, except at the base 

 near the calyx, where it is slightly tinged with green. The 

 calyx is composed of five oblong overlapping lobes, free 

 almost to the base, one and a half inches long, green, tinged 

 with brown. There are four fully expanded flowers, three 

 large buds, and about thirty smaller ones in the single cymose 

 head before me now. The leaves are ten inches long by 

 about four inches broad, Magnolia-like in texture, dark green 

 above, paler and tomentose beneath. The thickness of the 

 stem six inches below the head is a half inch in diameter. 



The plant grows very rapidly, and when properly treated it 

 develops all along its main branches lateral branchlets, which, 

 when about eighteen inches long, bear each a head of flowers. 

 I have seen a plant which was growing in a stove, and planted 

 in a fifteen-inch pot, with over a hundred flowers expanded 

 upon it, and all upon a vine not more than twenty feet in 

 length. 



Culture. — I cannot do better than quote here the cultural 

 directions which Mr. Ruffett sent to me a year or so ago. 

 Speaking of the first small plant he got, he says: "I potted it 

 in a compost of equal parts fibrous loam and peat, with a little 



is something to know that this magnificent Indian plant is sat- 

 isfied with our weak sunshine, provided it is left alone to make 

 free growth in its own way." 



There are three other species of Beaumontia, and one of 

 them, namely, B. Jerdotiiana, a native of the Deccan Penin- 

 sula, is in cultivation at Kew, and in a few other gardens, 

 notably at Panshanger, where Mr. Ruffett has succeeded in 

 flowering it this year. It is smaller in all its parts than B. 

 grandiflora, and although handsome when compared with 

 many other garden Apocynads, it is very second-rate by the 

 side of its congener. The flowers last well when cut and 

 placed in water. They are also suitable flowers for wreaths 

 and bouquets. A wreath formed entirely of the flowers of 

 B. grandiflora was one of the most beautiful of the hundreds 

 sent to the funeral of the Duchess of Cambridge about a year 

 ago. The majority of those who saw this wreath mistook the 

 flowers for "elegant and uncommon looking Lilies." 

 Kew. IV. 



Orchid Note. 



Maxillaria lepidata. — Under this name there is a small but 

 vigorous plant now flowering freely in one of the green- 

 houses at the Harvard Botanic Garden. It is uncommon 

 and interesting. Brown, in his supplement to Johnston's 



Clermont on the Hudson. — See page 122. 



silver sand, keeping it in active growth. When it had attained 

 the height of three feet it was planted out at the warm end of 

 a large conservatory, where it grew fairly well for three years, 

 but made no sign of flowering. Feeling assured it required 

 more solar heat to develop its growth, I had it removed to the 

 back wall of a Banana house, which is a span roof resting on 

 a wall ten feet high. It was now a plant considerably over 

 twenty feet high, and in a place that rendered it difficult of 

 access. The consequence was that it was much mutilated in 

 process of removal; so much so that I quite despaired of suc- 

 cess in the operation. However, the thing was accomplished, 

 and when a year had gone by it began to make rapid growth, 

 and had to be stopped back to prevent its overgrowing every- 

 thing. 



"The use of the knife was evidently not to its liking, for it 

 still made no sign of flowering. I therefore allowed it a space 

 under the north side of the roof to grow as it liked, and then 

 the tables were turned, and I had my reward for humoring its 

 nature. In the following spring, after one year of free growth 

 only, it made a grand display of flowers, and has continued to 

 do so, the present being: the third year of its flowering- 

 with me. 



"I find it a very free-flowering plant, not requiring a great 

 amount of fire heat, but all the sun-heat and light possible. It 



" Gardeners' Dictionary," states that it was introduced from 

 Colombia in 1878. But a species under the same name was 

 known to botanists much earlier. Lindley's description of 

 the latter is as follows : Stemless. Leaves solitary, strap- 

 shaped and very sharply narrowed to a petiole. Peduncle 

 one-flowered, acutely sheathed, erect and half as long as leaf. 

 Sepals long, linear and narrowly pointed. Petals bristly 

 acuminate and half as long as the sepals. Lip fleshy, obo- 

 vate, three-lobed, keeled at top and chaffy on both sides. 

 Middle lobe ovate ; the top and anterior margins of the 

 lateral ones crenate. Tubercule narrow and scarcely reach- 

 ing the middle of the lip.* Now, the plant under notice 

 differs in one very important particular from that described 

 by Lindley. The latter is stemless, while the former has 

 very apparent pseudo-bulbs, of flattened ellipsoidal form, and 

 from two to three inches high. The solitary leaves are borne 

 on top of pseudo-bulbs. In all other particulars our plant 

 conforms closely to Lindley's. As a garden plant it is very 

 desirable. The principal fault with many species of this 

 genus appears to be that their flowers — borne, as they are, 

 upon short stems — are hidden by the leaves. That, however, 

 cannot be said of this one. The leaves droop over gracefully, 

 and the flowers, being borne at the top of long stems, are 



* Annals of Nat. Hist., vol. XV., p. 38 ; 1845. 



