572 



Garden and Forest. 



[November 27, 1889. 



However, a packet of seed will produce many charming 

 varieties and good kinds may be selected from these if named 

 plants are not obtainable. The culture is the same as for 

 Pansies — a good, deep, cool, well enriched soil and frame pro- 

 tection in winter. 

 Elizabeth, N. J. /. N. Gerard. 



Orchid Notes. 



Cape Orchids.— During the last few years an effort has been 

 made to popularize some of the- elegant little terrestrial Orchids 

 of the Cape of Good Hope in British gardens, and the movement 

 has been attended with a certain amount of success, though 

 much remains to be done if they are to take a permanent 

 place among our cultivated Orchids. Beautiful as some of 

 them are, their successful cultivation is by no means such an 

 easy matter as is that of the majority of the epiphytic species, 

 and even when they appear to be doing well some of them 

 have a way of taking French leave during the resting season 

 that is particularly irritating. One cause of failure is, doubt- 

 less, the difficulty of imitating, under cultivation, the condi- 

 tions under which they e.xist in their native homes, and when 

 these conditions are understood and successfully imitated, 

 these plants may l;)ecome more familiar to us. A few years 

 ago it was considered quite a feat to grow the beautiful Disa 

 grandiflora successfully, and for the simple reason that its 

 requirements were not understood. A writer in the Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle has recently described the Uisa-house of 

 Messrs. James Backhouse & Son, of York, and shown what 

 can be done when the task is set about properly. It is 

 ninety-eight feet long by twelve and a half feet wide, partly 

 sunk, and the sliding lights are taken off in fine weather from 

 early spring to late autumn, while they are always left open 

 at night. The tubers are planted out in a prepared compost 

 and liberally watered. Under this treatment over five hun- 

 dred spikes were produced which bore over a thousand fiow- 

 ers, and one spike was nearly three feet high and bore nine 

 large fiowers. Such a sight must have been worth going a 

 long way to see. 



Other species which have been successfully grown are 

 Disa crassicornis, D. lacera, D. racemosa, D. tripetaloides, 

 Saiyriiiin carneuin and 5". coriifoliuui, with several others of 

 considerable interest. Speaking of Satyriums, a recent writer 

 recommends that the tubers should be potted much as Hya- 

 cinth bulbs would be, and remarks that they are not more 

 difficult to fiower when properly grown. 



The blue flowered group of Disas have long been sought 

 after by cultivators, but hitherto they have been grown with 

 very little success. During the present year several plants of 

 D. lacera have flowered, and one of them has been figured in 

 the Botajiical Magazine ; but, in spite of its novel color, the 

 figure seems to suggest that only when grown in strong- 

 clumps would it make a very showy garden plant. Whether 

 this is practicable remains to be proved, and at present ap- 

 pearances seem rather against it, unfortunately. 



Cultivators of -Cape Orchids will doubtless welcome a little 

 work entitled "The Orchids of the Cape Peninsula," by Mr. 

 Harry Bolus, F.L.S., which appeared some litfie time ago, in 

 which much interesting matter relating to this subject is to be 

 found. It appears fiiat the majority of the species flower in 

 early summer, yet there is no month (excepting, perhaps, 

 April, in some unfavorable year) in which some Orchid may 

 not be found in flower on the Cape Peninsula. Beginning in 

 April tlie flowers of Disa tenuis and Liparis Capensis may be 

 found. These confinue in various situations until June, and 

 are succeeded in July by Disperis Capensis, scattered every- 

 where over the Flats. These all have green or dull colored 

 flowers, but a note of brighter color is struck when Safyriu/n 

 coriifolium, with its orange flowers, and Disa obliqica, with 

 flesh colored flowers striped and blotched with purple, appear. 

 Several others quickly follow, until in October the maxnnum 

 is reached. In November and December the Orchids on the 

 Flats have disappeared, though they are still abundant on the 

 mountains. " After December the number rapidly diminishes, 

 yet the peerless Disa uniflora is in its glory on the rivulets of 

 Table Mountain in February. The last to linger are the lovely 

 blue Disa graminifolia and the flame colored D. ferruginea, 

 which may often be found until late in March. The three last 

 named are the brilliant product of the unclouded summer 

 sun ; and with them Nature gloriously closes, as in a gorgeous 

 and many-colored sunset, the splendid array of these beauties 

 of the floral year." 



The D. nniflora here mentioned is none other than D. gran- 

 difiora, being an earlier name of the species, and we may 

 conclude with the following remarks upon it, from the pen of 

 Mr. Bolus : " This beautiful fiower is the object of universal 



admiration, and the name which has been given to it, the 

 ' Pride of Table Mountain,' indicates the honor in which it is 

 held. It is indeed the queen of terrestrial Orchids in the 

 southern Hemisphere, as Cypripedimn spectabile may be said 

 to reign, though with less magnificence, in the northern. 

 ... It is still abundant on Table Mountain, although of late- 

 years large quantities of the tubers have been annually ex- 

 ported to Europe, and much needless destruction, arising from 

 wasteful gathering by unskilled hands, resulted. But the 

 summit of the mountains being Crown land, the government 

 has recently intervened and restricted the removal of tubers 

 within reasonable limits, so that, if this supervision be con- 

 tinued, there will be little reason to fear the extinction of this 

 truly noble species." Calypso. 



London. 



Zygopetaluni Bnrkei. — ^This is quite a handsome plant, and 

 not at all common. It was introduced froni Guiana in 1883,. 

 where it was found growing among the grass in swampy 

 places and also on the drier uplands. It should be placed in 

 the vi'armest house ; indeed, we could do nothing with it until 

 we placed it in the warmest corner of the Phahenopsis house, 

 in company with Phajiis tuberciilosus, Odontoglossum Roezlii 

 and other so-called " miffy " Orchids. It now grows like a 

 weed, potted in a mixture of loam, sand and decayed leaves, 

 kept very wet, and syringed overhead at least twice a day. 

 After growth is finished a little less water may be given. This 

 species has a clustered habit, with oblong, lanceolate bulbs 

 about three inches long, and two lanceolate, acuminate leaves 

 about one foot long. The scapes, which appear with the 

 young growths, are about twenty inches long, bearing half a 

 dozen very attractive flowers, with greenish sepals and petals 

 prettily mottled and barred with brown. The ovate, acuminate 

 lip is pure white, faintly tinged on the margin with yellow ; the 

 crest, or ruff, has crimson colored folds. The flowers last quite 

 a long time in perfection, and are found valuable for cutting. 



Kenwood, N. Y. . F. Goldring. 



Urceolina aurea. — A group of a dozen pots of this plant, 

 and comprising nearly forty spikes of its elegant brightly col- 

 ored flowers, is very ornamental at this time of year, or in- 

 deed at any time. This species is an old garden plant, but it 

 is not much cultivated nowadays. To be effective it should 

 be grown in quantity and massed when in flower, and as the 

 bulbs yield offsets very freely, there is no difficulty in soon ob- 

 taining a good man ber of flowering bulbs. The erect spikes are 

 a foot long, and each one bears from three to five pendent 

 flowers on thin pedicels, hanging like ear-drops. The corolla 

 is urn-shaped, two inches long, the lower half bright yellow, 

 the upper emerald green. The flower-spikes are developed 

 after the leaves have withered. The plants should be potted 

 in fibrous peat and sand and grown on a shelf in a stove. 

 They do not like bright sunshine, being accustomed to the 

 shade of woods, where they grow wild in the Andes of Peru. 

 During growth they require a regular supply of water, but 

 after the leaves change color no water should be given. 

 There are two other species, viz., latifolia, which is larger in 

 bulb and bears about eight flowers on a scape ; and miniata, 

 generally known as Pentlandia, which has bright scarlet flow- 

 ers, and thrives in a green-house. It fiowered at Kew in July 

 last. The most useful of the three, however, is U. pendula 

 (syn. U. aiirea). W. Watson. 



Kew. 



Work in the Vineyard. — The frequent rainy days this fall have 

 interfered seriously with working the soil, especially where it is 

 of a clayey nature, but opportunity has thus been given for early 

 pruning of the vines. This work is more easily and expedi- 

 tiously and mpre comfortably done in mild weather than in the 

 winter when the ground is frozen or covered with snow. A 

 few grape-growers hold to the antiquated notion that no 

 pruning should be done except in February, but experience 

 has proved that no harm comes from early cutting. The 

 work of the plant is not completed with the ripening of the 

 fruit and the fall of the leaves. The wood continues to 

 harden, and meanwhile the sap does not cease its move- 

 ments. This sap, which in spring will follow the cut of the 

 knife or shears like water, is much thicker at this season 

 of the year, and exudes, if at all, in a thick gummy condition. 

 If, as some suppose, the ripening of uimecessary wood is a 

 tax on the plant, its removal now certainlymust be a relief and 

 a benefit to the remaining wood. Whether this theory is cor- 

 rect or not, autumn pruning of the Vine is on the increase, and 

 constantly growing in favor. It not only gives the plants a 

 neater appearance, but affords much better facilities for clear- 

 ing up the ground and putting it in good condition for passing 

 the winter. If the plants need laying down for protection it is 



