Garden and Forest. 



[January 2, 1889. 



p. 468). — This wonderful Orchid cannot be cultivated with any 

 success in England. It has fiowered only once here, I be- 

 lieve, namely, in the collection of the late Mr. John Day, of 

 Tottenham, and that was on a newly imported plant. Mr. 

 Day, who had seen the plant in its native haunts, said it grew 

 on stout branches of trees overhanging rivers, and the plants 

 were always within a foot or so of the surface, so that its roots 

 were in the water. It also requires great heat and bright sun- 

 shine. Plants are in cultivation at Kew, but ihey do not 

 thrive. An Orchid with pseudo-bulbs as thick as a man's 

 wrist, and eight feet or more long, the ffower-scape six feet 

 high and one inch in diameter, bearing numerous tfowers 

 nearly si.\ inches across, and colored rich yellow with purple 

 spots, is something worth striving for ; but these flowers 

 seem unattainable in England. 



Catasetum Bungerothii. — This plant is certain to bring 

 many of the species of this extraordinary genus into popular 

 favor, as it has proved surprisingly beautiful and easy to cul- 

 tivate. When it was first talked of most Orchid-growers 

 doubted there being a Catasetum with such attractive charac- 

 ters as were ascribed to C. Bungerothii, but it is immensely 

 popular here now. Mr. Sander has a great number of plants 

 in bloom, showing considerable variety in form and coloring. 

 At Kew this and several other species are in flower. One of 

 these, C. laniiginosu7)i, had two supposed distinct varieties 

 of flowers springing from the same pseudo-bulb. Had there 

 been only one of the spikes, this plant would certainly have 

 been called a new species, but the second spike proved that 

 this was only one of the extraordinary freaks to which Cata- 

 setums are addicted. Dr. Lindley described one of them 

 which bore flowers of three supposed genera on the same 

 spike. 



SOPHRONITIS. — A quantity of plants in good condition, of the 

 rose-colored variety of S. grandiflora, have lately been im- 

 ported. It is almost as large-flowered as the best form of the 

 type ; the pseudo-bulbs and foliage are brownish, the latter 

 very thick and fleshy ; but the only marked difference is that 

 of color, the type having flowers of a briUiant scarlet, whilst 

 in the variety rosea they are bright rose-purple, almost clear 

 red. This form first appeared in a London collection in 1884, 

 when it was figured in The Garden. A good example is now 

 flowering at Kew. S. cernua is also in bloom here. It is small- 

 flowered, each peduncle bearing several flowers of a cinna- 

 bar-red coloi'. Except to complete a collection, this species 

 is not worth cultivating. S. violacea is a better plant. It 

 blooms in winter and spring, and lasts a long while; and the 

 flowers are an inch across and violet-purple in color. In the 

 form of its pseudo-bulbs and leaves, too, this species is pecu- 

 liar and interesting. Of course, all the kinds thrive best when 

 grown in the coolest and moistest Orchid-house. 



Calanthes form the brightest and most graceful picture in 

 our Orchid houses just now. They are everybody's plants. 

 Here they are grown for the conservatory, the two oldest 

 and best, C. vestita and C. Veitchii, being as easy to grow 

 and as beautiful when in flower as the most popular of 

 decorative plants. But there exist kinds in a few English col- 

 lections which, when sutficiently multiplied, will be a great 

 acquisition as winter-flowering plants. Such are C. Burfordi- 

 ^«jzj,with crimson and vermilion flowers ; C. Veitchii splendens, 

 almost as dark in color ; C. Sandhurstiana, and one or two 

 others. These are seedlings or crosses from C. vistita and 

 C. Veitchii, which have been raised in the gardens of Sir T. 

 Laurence. C. veratrifolia, C. biloba and C. Natalensis are also 

 flowering here. 



There are four particularly bright plants in the green-house 

 just now. The first is Reinwardtia tetragviia, a relative of the 

 old Linwn trigynum, but a much superior plant. Its flowers 

 are borne in large clusters on the ends of the short branches, 

 well grown plants being simply irregular masses of the softest 

 yellow bloom. This plant is not understood well in nurseries, 

 and I have heard it spoken of disparagingly by growers whose 

 plants were a proof of their ignorance of its requirements. 

 These are simple enough. A warm green-house, shade from 

 bright sunshine, plenty of water always and a fair amount of 

 root room, are the conditions which have produced the plants 

 admired now by every one at Kew. Mesenibryanthenium 

 blandxim is practically unknown in horticulture, but it is a 

 handsome and useful winter-flowering plant, nevertheless. 

 It is compact, the branches erect, with bright green, almost 

 terete leaves, two inches long, and flowers, as big as half- 

 crowns, white, full and lasting. Most of the plants of this 

 genus close their flowers, except when the sun shines upon 

 them, but this species is an exception, as its flowers are ex- 

 panded in all lights. Sericographis Ghiesbreghtii makes a 

 delightful little picture in our green-house just now. It is 



treated in the same wtiy as the Reinwardtia. It grows here to 

 a height of twelve and a half feet, is freely branched, and clothed 

 with axillary and terminal panicles of graceful, tubular, scarlet 

 flowers. A group of well-grown plants when in flower can- 

 not be easily beaten. Luculia gratissima completes the quar- 

 tette, a plant which most people delight to see, but few culti- 

 vate with success. Planted in a bed of rich peat in a sunny 

 position in the warm green-house it forms a shrub ten feet 

 high, and every branch is now bearing a huge head of hand- 

 some rosy-white flowers, which emit a delicious fragrance, and 

 remain in beauty a month or more. 



Primula Japonica. — By a little management this fine Prim- 

 rose may be induced to flower almost at any time. At Kew it 

 is now in beautiful condition in a cool green-house, where it 

 will continue to flower all winter. In the summer it is happy 

 in a sunny border out-of-doors. Plants raised late and kept in 

 pots commence to flower in autumn, and so on. There are 

 many varieties of it, one of the most distinct being pure 

 white, save the blotch of dull yeUow on the mouth of the tube. 

 Rose-colored, deep crimson and flaked varieties are also com- 

 mon. This species is hardy enough to take care of itself out- 

 of-doors all winter in England. There are not at present any 

 yellow-flowered varieties known, but in P. imperialis , now 

 called P. prolifera,we have a species very similar to P. Japon- 

 ica in foliage and inflorescence, differing only in having pure 

 sulphur-yellow flowers. They are not quite as large as those 

 of the Japanese plant, the width of the limb being only half an 

 inch. Some examples now in flower at Kew have peduncles 

 two feet high, bearing four whorls, each three inches apart, 

 and each whorl containing a dozen flowers. Good cultivation, 

 with selection, ought to evolve a first-rate flowering plant out 

 of this Primrose. The form in cultivation is that found in the 

 Himalayas. There is, however, another variety of it in Java, 

 with foliage like dock leaves, and a flower spike five feet high ; 

 but so far as is known, this noble Primrose has not yet been 

 introduced. 



Several species of Kniphofia are flowering out-of-doors here, 

 an unusual occurrence in December. K. hybrida sarmetitosa 

 is quite gorgeous, even now. It has spikes a yard high, and 

 heads of flowers eight inches long ; the color of the upper 

 flowers is bright orange-scarlet, the lower flowers being sul- 

 phur yellow. K. Saujtdersoni is also flowering freely. The 

 Kniphofias are receiving careful attention from several horti- 

 culturists in England, who aim at improving them both in 

 respect to hardiness and flower-color, by means of hybridization 

 and selection. A great number of species and varieties are 

 cultivated at Kew. W. Watson. 



December 6th, 1888. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Neillia Torreyi.'^ 



IT is somewhat remarkable that the dw^arf Ninebark of 

 the Rocky Mountams, the Neillia Torreyi, has not 

 become common and a favorite on lawns and in shrub- 

 beries. The larger species, N. opulifolia, more popularly 

 known as Spircea opulifolia, with its golden-leaved 

 variety, is in frequent use for hedges and for ornament. 

 The great objection to it is its rampant growth and need 

 of free and frequent cutting in. The N. Torreyi, on the 

 contrary, while resembling it very closely in many re- 

 spects, is rather compact in its habit and is only two or 

 three feet in height. It is a free bloomer and would be 

 perfectly hardy in the coldest winters. The form of the 

 leaves is the same as in the other, but they are smaller 

 and usually more pubescent, sometimes white-tomentose 

 on the lower side. The flowers are in smaller clusters 

 and scarcely more than half as large, and the fruit, which 

 is composed, of only one or two tomentose seed vessels, 

 never becomes so inflated and conspicuous, as is the case 

 in the common Ninebark. It would certainly be an orna- 

 ment to any lawn, and where only a low hedge is 

 needed, it would probably prove very satisfactory. The 

 shrub is not rare in the mountains of Colorado and west- 

 ward through the Wahsatch, and in some of the ranges of 

 Nevada. S. W. 



[Mr. Faxon's drawing is made from a plant which has 

 flowered during several years in the Arnold Arboretum. 

 It is perfectly hardy, and ripens seeds abundantly. — Ed.] 



*Neillia Torreyi, Watson, Proc. Amer. Acad., ii. 136. — Oui- two species that are 

 referred to Neillia have been separated from that Asiatic genus by Dr. Maximo- 

 wicz, of St. Petersburg, and constitute liis genus Physocarpus, 



