March 26, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



153 



CYMBIDIUM Lowianum. — Two gi- 

 gantic specimens of this noble Orchid, 

 both good varieties, the one bearing 

 thirteen spikes with 320 flowers, the 

 other 211 flowers, nearly every one 

 expanded, have just been sold at 

 auction for twenty-eight guineas and 

 thirty guineas respectively. It is rarely 

 that one meets with such perfect ex- 

 amples as these were. They were in 

 pots about one foot three inches across, 

 and the soil they were growing in was 

 a strong loam simply. Although one 

 of the easiest of Orchids to cultivate, 

 yet this Cymbidium does not always 

 'flower satisfactorily. It is an open 

 secret that both plants were purchased 

 for the great establishment at St. 

 Albans. 



C. Loise Chauvieri.— A plant under 

 this name was offered at the same 

 sale, and although a small example 

 with a single growth, the sum of forty- 

 two guineas was refused for it. The 

 name is said to be Reichenbachian, 

 though there does not appear to be 

 any record of its having been pub- 

 lished. Mr. Sander sold two plants of 

 it, the only others known to exist, to 

 Sir Trevor Lawrence about eight years 

 ago, but they have not yet flowered. 

 In the sale catalogue it is described as 

 "a large flowered scarlet variety from 

 Madagascar, the finest new Orchid in 

 existence." A Cymbidium with large 

 scarlet flowers would be a grand addi- 

 tion to garden Orchids. Meanwhile 

 we may note that there are no species 

 of Cymbidium hitherto recorded from 

 Madagascar, a fact which, however, 

 goes for very little, seeing how few of 

 the plants of the interior of this island 

 are known. W. Watson. 



Kew. 



O 1 



Fig. 27. — Aster ptarmicoides. — See page 152. 



were raised, and that they have grown vigorously is shown 

 by the strength of the flower-spike and vigor of the foliage. 

 An inflorescence recently sent to Kew by Mr. Cookson had a 

 scape a foot long, and it bore five flowers which were fully 

 four inches across, the segments similar in form and arrange- 

 ment to those of P. Wallichii, two inches long, half an inch 

 wide, their color pale rosy salmon shaded with brown. The 

 lip is almost campanulate, spurless, two inches long-, three- 

 fourths of an inch across the mouth, with a tongue-like lobe 

 nearly an inch long, wavy and crisped along the margin. Its 

 color is apricot-yellow, changing to deep crimson in the upper 

 part, whilst the lobe is purple with a yellow line runningdown 

 the middle from throat to apex. The column is white. 



Cultural Department. 



The Cantaloupe. 



F the various members of the 

 Gourd family, those which interest 

 us generally are the plants which sup- 

 ply our tables with delicacies, of which 

 the Cantaloupe has the greatest num- 

 ber of admirers, and, in the estimation 

 of some, it has no equal among our sum - 

 merfruits. To constitute perfection, the 

 fruit should be removed from the vine 

 shortly before it is ripe ; it should be 

 washed with soap and cold water, then 

 dried in a soft towel, and set to ripen in 

 a dry place. A Cantaloupe that before 

 washing smells like a potato, will in a 

 few hours begin to give out an invit- 

 ing perfume, and when this odor has 

 reached its proper measure and charac- 

 ter is the time to cut the melon. 



My own ideal melon is of the size and 

 form of a large ostrich-egg, with a thin, 

 finely-netted rind, thick, grass-green 

 flesh, a small seed cavity and a sweet, 

 aromatic flavor. Some fifty years or 

 more ago there was introduced into this 

 market a small, green-fleshed Cantaloupe known as the "Cen- 

 tre Melon," which, for a time, excelled in richness of flavor all 

 of its competitors. It was flat in form, grooved and finely 

 netted ; but it was too little to suit the ideas of the trucker, 

 and therefore had to be made larger by hybridization with 

 other flat varieties of greater diameter but inferior flavor. 

 This Centre Melon was the progenitor of the Jenny Lind 

 variety named about 1846 ; but where it came from no one 

 now appears to know. I am inclined, however, to believe 

 that it originated in the East, and possibly in the table-land of 

 Armenia, where netted, green-fleshed melons are produced 

 in abundance, some of which are flat, and where the same 

 perfect flavor is to be met with. These Armenian melons 



