454 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 403. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Berberis heteropoda. 



THIS handsome Barberry of central Asia is an old 

 inhabitant of the Arnold Arboretum, having been 

 raised here first from seed sent from the St. Petersburg- 

 Botanic Garden in 1 880. Berberis heteropoda* (see illustra- 

 tion on page 455 of this issue) becomes in cultivation a 

 vigorous shrub with stout spreading stems, usually unarmed 

 or rarely furnished with stout simple or forked spines, and 

 three or four feet tall. The leaves are broadly obovate, 

 rounded at the apex, gradually narrovi'ed into long, slen- 

 der, reddish petioles, finely serrate, or often entire, pale 

 bluish green, and paler on the lower than on the upper 

 surface, from an inch and a half to two inches long and an 

 inch and a quarter wide. The flowers are produced in 

 few-flowered, long-stalked umbels, and are deep orange 

 color, very fragrant, half an inch in diameter, and open 

 about the middle of May, when the leaves have grown to 

 nearly their full size. The fruit, which is produced sparingly 

 in the Arboretum, ripens at the end of August, and is ob- 

 long, dark blue and covered vi'ith a slight glaucous bloom. 

 The pale color of the foliage of this Barberry, its hand- 

 some fragrant flowers and beautiful fruit make it one of 

 the most distinct of the genus and a desirable inhabitant of 

 our shrubberies. C. S. S. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



An^ctochilus Sanderianus. — Under this provisional name 

 Herr Kranzlin describes a plant of which Messrs. F. San- 

 der & Co. have imported a large stock from the Sunda 

 Islands. There are healthy examples of it in the Kew col- 

 lection, and although it is more than possible that it is not 

 new to botanists I believe it has never before been in cul- 

 tivation. It has very beautifully marked leaves, and in 

 habit as well as foliage I should say it comes nearest to 

 Dossinia marmorata (A. Lowii). The leaves are nearly 

 ovate, fleshy, with a thin wavy border, the largest being 

 four inches long ; they are colored dark velvety green, with 

 golden green reticulating veins, the under side being pink- 

 ish. Although this description would almost fit Anaectoch- 

 ilus petola, yet there is really a wide difference between the 

 two. At Kew there are good examples of about a dozen 

 of the best of the Anaectochili, including A. setaceus, A. 

 petola, A. Lowii, A. intermedia and A. Dawsoni. Grown 

 under bell-glasses they are very beautiful, perhaps the most 

 beautiful of all variegated plants, but they are difficult to 

 keep in health. There is a good, well-grown collection of 

 them in the Blenheim gardens. 



Oncidium dichromum. — This is the plant which Lindley 

 described as Odontoglossum bicolor. It has lately been 

 imported by Messrs. F. Sander & Co., and probably it has 

 never been in cultivation before. Mr. Rolfe, to whom 

 specimens were recently submitted, says it is a true Oncid- 

 ium, and as there is an O. bicolor already he proposes to 

 rename the nevi'comer as above. It is very like the beau- 

 tiful O. aureum, but differs in having largerflowers and ovate 

 pseudo-bulbs one and a half inches long, monophyllous, 

 the leaf eight inches long and half an inch v\'ide. The dried 

 scape sent by the collector is stout, branched and apparently 

 erect, and the flowers have a beautiful yellow lip nearly 

 two inches in diameter, the sepals and petals being small 

 and purplish brown, as in O. aureum. Lindley described 

 it as having flowers large, bright violet, with a great whole- 

 colored yellow lip with three strong equal curved teeth on 

 the unguis, and gave Peru as its habitat. It promises to be 



* Berberis heteropoda, Fischer & Meyer, Enum. PI. Nim., Schrenck, i.. 102 (1841).— 

 Karelin & Kirilow, Euum. PI. Songor., No. 48. — Ledebour, Fl. Ross., \., 742. — 

 Rep:el, Act. Hort. Petrop., ii., 418. 



Berberis vulgaris, Falk, Beitr., ii., 163 (teste Ledebour, 1. c.) (not Linnaeus) 

 (1786). — Hort., Kew. 



Berberis spjerocarpa, Karelin & Kirilow, Enitin. PI. Alt., No. 46 (1S42). 



a first-rate addition to cultivated Oncidiums, of which 

 O. aureum is one of the best. 



Masdevallia Forgetiana is a new species described by 

 Herr Kranzlin and named after Mr. Forget, collector of 

 Messrs. Sander & Co. It is small-flowered and, therefore, 

 unlikely to interest any except ardent collectors of this 

 curious genus. Herr Kranzlin says: "It is, perhaps, not 

 a first-rate beauty, like many other Masdevallias, but it is, 

 nevertheless, a nice little plant, and interesting as coming 

 from Brazil. ... It is, of course, a genuine tropical 

 Orchid, and requires warmer treatment than the alpine 

 species." In this respect M. Forgetiana resembles M. Wend- 

 landiana, another small Brazilian species, which can be 

 grown only in a tropical temperature. It is peculiar in 

 being deciduous, all the leaves falling off in winter, a pecu- 

 liarity which has resulted more than once in the plant being 

 thrown on the rubbish heap as dead. • With these two ex- 

 ceptions all the Masdevallias require cool treatment. 



Episcia densa. — This is a new and promising addition to 

 the cultivated species of Episcia, of which E. erythropus, 

 E. fulgida, E. Chontalensis and E. metallica are generally 

 grown, the last three being known as Cyrtodeiras. E. densa 

 is a native of British Guiana, specimens of it having been 

 sent to Kew by Mr. Jenman, of the Georgetown Botanic 

 Garden. It was described by Mr. Wright in the Kew Btille- 

 tin in January last, and plants of it are now in flower in a 

 stove at Kew. It has a woody stem six inches long, sup- 

 porting about a dozen spreading oblong acuminate leaves, 

 the petiole four inches long, the blade eight inches by four, 

 glossy olive-green above, crimson-purple beneath. The 

 flowers are numerous on short axillary racemes, forming a 

 cluster about the bases of the leaves ; the calyx is crimson 

 outside, green within, and the tubular corolla is two inches 

 long, pale yellow, covered with glistening silky hairs. The 

 plant grows freely in an ordinary stove, is attractive in 

 leaf as well as in flowers, and is as easily multiplied as a 

 Gloxinia. 



Stapelia gigantea. — If all the Stapelias were as easily 

 cultivated and as strikingly handsome as this is the genus 

 would take front rank among popular plants for the green- 

 house. It is diflicult to overcome prejudices against plants, 

 and there exists among horticulturists a strong prejudice 

 against Stapelias, begotten of the dull colors and bad odors 

 of the flowers of many of them and their bad behavior 

 under ordinary cultivation. But in S. gigantea we have 

 an exception to all this. As I have said, the plant grows 

 with freedom when the treatment is right, and this is noth- 

 ing more than obtains in any plant-stove. Its flowers are 

 great fleshy stars a foot in diameter, pale yellow, with 

 short brown lines, the surface wrinkled and covered with 

 soft silky hairs, altogether a most unflower-like flower. As 

 for the odor — well, it is strong and disagreeable if one is 

 too curious — but the flowers may be seen and enjoyed at 

 a short distance and the odor not perceived. Several big 

 pans of this plant have flovi'ered freely at Kew during 

 October ; one, grown in a ten-inch pan suspended from 

 the roof of a stove, was a mass of shoots, and bore five open 

 flowers on one day, with many buds in various stages of 

 development. 



A First-rate Banana. — The best Banana grown at Kew — 

 and I believe all the reputedly best sorts have been or are 

 grown here now — is one which is known as "Ram Kela," 

 an Indian name for Musa sapientum, van rubra. It has 

 a very tall, stout, reddish stem, equally large leaves, 

 suckers freely, and its branches are as large as those of M. 

 Cavendishii. The fruit is six inches long, six inches in cir- 

 cumference, nearly straight, with five slight longitudinal 

 ridges ; the skin is dull orange-red, or yellow, tinged with 

 red, when ripe ; the flesh is apricot-yellow and delicious in 

 odor as well as in flavor. Each fruit weighs from six to 

 sevei\ ounces. This description does not quite agree with 

 that published in the Keiv BiiUetiii, prepared from Indian 

 specimens. There the fruit is said to be seven inches long 

 and rather thin, its flavor surprisingly rich and luscious and 

 its flesh of buttery consistency. There are apparently as 



