November 13, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



551 



yellow Chinese incurved. Violet Tornlin, a sport from Prin- 

 cess of Wales of the same section, has fine form, but is of that 

 distressing color known by Horists as violet-rose. C. Orchard, 

 after the fashion of Mrs. Wheeler, is an exhil)ition flower of 

 largest size. Mrs. J. Wright, a large, deep and graceful white, 

 is a first-ride addition, ancl one of the best of the season. 



The French still produce annually a great number of fancy 

 kinds, many of which, if poorly grown, can scarcely be distin- 

 guished from each other, but every year adds a few very good 

 ones. The most promising here are Madame Edouard Lefort 

 (Del.), a very deep maroon, with gold reverse and ends of petals 

 laciniated and laced with gold, in the way of Macaulay; M. Boiu'- 

 gignon (Del.), a purple-red reflexed, silver centre ; Compte de 

 Mun (Del.), cream and white ; F. Marrouch (Aud.), yellow ; M. 

 J. N. Pigmy (Aud.), a white Soliel Levant; Madame Lay (Aud.), 

 carmine-rose ; M. Bernard (Brt.), violet-amaranth. 



Mr. Spaulding has a great number of seedlings, the most 

 promising of which has been named Ada Spaulding, a very 

 solid sphere of white, shading to pink on the lower petals. 

 The. effect of a well grown Mower is that of a large I^aeony, 

 though it is well incurved and belongs to the Japanese section, 

 not being so closely imbricated as the typical Chinese. As 

 grown here, the second se;ison, in all forms, it appears to be 

 a variety of great merit. This flower was awarded the Harri- 

 son Cup at Indianapolis, November 5th, as the best American 

 seedling not yet introduced. 



E. G. Hill, a tine yellow, flamed with red on its lower petals, 

 will be fine if it retains its character. I fancied, among a great 

 number. Cyclone, a white R. Crawford ; 770, a bronze copy of 

 same, 789, a very full Mrs. Wheeler; and Zenobia, a large white 

 with wide petals. It would be interesting to know if, among 

 original species from which our hybrids have been obtained, 

 there is a scented one. Otherwise it is difficult to account for 

 the appearance of an occasional variety with a decided per- 

 fiune. A little lemon colored Pompon seedling here has a 

 most pronoimced odor, in the heat of the sun quite overpower- 

 ing. Mr. Spaulding has hxed a white sport of Mrs. Gerard, 

 which he has named Marie Ward, a most exquisite flower of 

 distinct form. I noticed here one feature of very great interest 

 to growers — the culture of the main crop in wooden boxes six 

 feet long, a foot wide and a foot deep, such as are used by 

 Rose-growers. Six plants were grown in each box, and were 

 in excellent condition. Of course, such boxes require much 

 less care and are less expensive than pots, more rapidly shifted 

 into the houses, and in every way more convenient when the 

 plants are grown for cut flowers for market in large quantities. 



Orange, N. J. . G. 



Recent Publications. 



The Genus Masdevallia. 



A Manual of Orchidaceous Plants Cultivated Under Glass in 

 Great Britain, by Messrs. James Veitch & Sons, Chelsea. 



A fifth part of this very useful work has just been issued, and 

 is devoted to those charming little plants, the Masdevallias, and 

 a few closely allied genera. Few other groups have increased 

 so rapidly during recent years, and the available information 

 is so widely scattered that the work will be welcomed by culti- 

 vators and others. And it is not too much to say that the same 

 high standard of excellence which has characterized the early 

 parts of this work is liere fully maintained. 



Masdevallia was established by Ruiz & Pavon, toward the 

 end of the eighteenth century, for a single Peruvian species, 

 which, strangely enough, is unknown to modern science. In 

 1832 Lindley enumerated three species in his "Genera and 

 Species of Orchidaceous Plants," and thirty years later the 

 number had only increased to thirty-six. At the present time, 

 through the discoveries of travelerson the upper slopes of the 

 Andes, 125 species is said not to be an exaggerated estimate of 

 the numbers. Some of these are not in cultivation, and others 

 have but little claim to be cultivated for ornament ; but we 

 notice that the selection given by Messrs. Veitch numbers 

 some sixty species, exclusive of hybrids. 



A large amount of useful and interesting information is given 

 as to the homes of these plants and the conditions under which 

 they grow, and from it the following is condensed : Masde- 

 vallias are alpine plants, having their homes on the motmtains 

 of tropical America. They grow in a variety of situations — on 

 the ground, in the crevices of rocks, on the trunks and branches 

 of trees, and even on the roofs of buildings, but always where 

 there is but little soil, or where there is but a small accumula- 

 tion of vegetable matter. They first ajipear on the Peruvian 

 Andes, about the fifteenth parallel of latitude, and extend as 

 far as the mountains of south Mexico, being most numerous 

 in New Granada ; while a few outlying species are found in 



the mountains of Brazil and Guiana. Some of them occur 

 within the Odontoglossum zone, but usually they are found at 

 a higher elevation and above the limits of the forests. In round 

 numbers, they may be said to occur between the elevations of 

 6,000 and 13,000 leet, afewof them ascending to near the snow 

 line. In these eleveited regions the Masdevallias live vmder 

 very different climatic conditions from those under which they 

 are cultivated in Great Britain, owing to the greater rarity of 

 the air, its diminished capacity for absorbing aqueous vapor, 

 and other local causes ; nevertheless, their culture is not 

 attended with any special difficulties. 



Several features of interest present themselves on glancing 

 through the work. Take Masdevallia Chimara, for example, 

 where we note that no less than six Reichenbachian species 

 are reduced as varieties of one polymorphic species. Seven 

 varieties are admitted, but we read that " there are other 

 Chimoera forms in cultivation, named and unnamed, so inter- 

 mediate in character that they may with equal right be referred 

 to either of the two between which they stand." 



" The habitat of Masdevallia Chiviccra is restricted to a com- 

 paratively small area on the western Cordillera of New Granada, 

 extending from Frontino, near Antioquia, to a few miles south- 

 ward of that town. Its vertical range is from 4,500 to 6,500 

 feet ; it grows chiefly on trees and shrubs, preferring the forks 

 of the branches, where there is a small accumulation of decay- 

 ing vegetable matter, and where there is shade and moisture. 

 In those localities in which M. Chimoera is most abundant the 

 atmosphere is always at or near the saturation point, and fogs 

 and mists are almost of daily occurrence for more than nine 

 months of the year ; but at the higher limits of its range, where 

 these hygrometric conditions are less pronounced, the plants 

 are much less vigorous, but flower more freely ; the leaves are 

 swollen and moreleathery, the flower-scapes shorter and erect, 

 and the flowers are smaller in all their parts." 



Masdevallia coccinea, "a charming thing, with flowers as red 

 as a soldier's coat," is a name which has been floating through 

 the books like a ghost, without any one knowing what it really 

 stood for, and consequently we read with interest that the plant 

 has lieen identified, and is none other than M. Lindeni: of 

 which M. Harryana is supposed to be only a variety. The 

 confusion seems to have arisen through the true plant being 

 first confounded with Masdevallia niilitaris, and then with 

 M. ignea, and those who would read the history of this confu- 

 sion should refer to the pages of the Gardeners' Chronicle for 

 August 31st last, where the matter was sifted by Mr. Rolfe, of 

 Kew. And so it appears we must write M. coccitiea for this 

 showy species, whose flowers vary from a deep, rich crimson- 

 purple, through magenta-crimson, crimson-scarlet, scarlet, 

 orange and yellow to cream white. 



"Its principal locality," we are told, "is on the eastern Cor- 

 dillera, between Sogamosa and Concepcion, where its vertical 

 range is 7,000 to 10,000 feet ; it is particularly abundant on that 

 part of the Cordillera called the Sierra Nevada de Chita, where 

 it spreads in uninternq^ted masses for miles, covering acres 

 upon acres of the upland slopes, growing in the partial shade 

 afforded by the low shrul)s that abound in the place. When in 

 liloom these masses of Masdevallia present one of the most 

 striking floral sights it is possible to behold, even in tropical 

 lands." 



These extracts will afford a glimpse of the valuable informa- 

 tion to be found in the pages of the work. One of the illus- 

 trations calls for a remark — and, by the way, the same or a very 

 sinnlar one has appeared in the pages of the Gardeners' Chron- 

 icle. It is M. raceinosa, with fourteen flowers, all expanded at 

 the same time, and as three is the highest nimilier seen in 

 cultivation, we cannot but think some mistake has been made. 

 The raceme certainly goes on lengthening and producing 

 new flowers, but these are borne in succession, not svnchron- 

 ously. We recently saw a dried specimen which had been 

 carefully glued to a sheet of paper, and which exhibited all the 

 flowers of the raceme expanded at once; but the most cursory 

 examination showed that the flowers had all been carefully 

 attached to an old raceme. The moral is self-evident. 



Notes. 



Mr. C. L. Allen sends to this office a fruit of the Chinese 

 (2uince weighing considerably more than a pound. The flesh 

 is dry, bitter and puckery, but the odor of the frint is de- 

 lightful. 



A new Veitchian hybrid Cypripedium, not yet in commerce, 

 to be called T. B. Haywood, is now flowering for the first time 

 in America, in Mr. Ames' garden at North Easton. It hardly 

 seems very distinct, or superior to many of its predecessors. 



