December 4, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



483 



United States boundary, and S. Hookeriana, common on 

 our north-west coast from Oregon to British Columbia — 

 are more distinctively American types. To the last men- 

 tioned the present species is most nearly allied, but differs 

 conspicuously in the entire absence of that grayish pubes- 

 cence of both leaves and twigs so characteristic of S. 

 Hookeriana. The leaves in one form are similar in outline, 

 in others much narrower, with a very irregular repand 

 margin. The beautiful silky aments are like those of S. 

 Hookeriana. The filaments, occasionally united at base, 

 is a marked characteristic of S. lasiolepis, and it is not 

 improbable that S. Piperi will be found to vary in the direc- 

 tion of that species. It seems, in fact, to combine the 

 characteristics of these two very dissimilar species, Hook- 

 eriana and Lasiolepis, while abundantly distinguished from 



Rockford, III. M. S. Behb. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



LuDDEMANNiA TRILOBA. — This IS a new species which has 

 lately flowered in the collection of Sir Trevor Lawrence, 

 who exhibited it this week at the meeting of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society and obtained for it a first-class cer- 

 tificate. It has the habit, pseudo-bulbs and foliage of an 

 Acenita and Pescatorea, to which the genus is nearly allied, 

 and produces a pendulous raceme about two feet long, 

 bearing over thirty flowers one and a half inches across, of 

 waxy appearance and colored bright yellow, tinged with 

 brown ; the lip is three-lobed, yellow, with a blotch of pur- 

 ple. It is a native of the Peruvian Andes. Considerable 

 interest in the plant was evinced by Orchid fanciers, as it 

 possesses attractions in the size and color of its flowers, 

 and also in their strong aromatic odor. No doubt, Mr. 

 Lehmann, who is said to be the discoverer of this new spe- 

 cies, knows where plenty more are to be had. The genus is 

 scarcely known in English collections, although special 

 attention was called to it by the late Professor Reichenbach 

 at the Orchid Conference held at South Kensington a dozen 

 years ago, and more recently by a figure of Luddeinannia 

 Pescatorei, hitherto the only known species, published in 

 The Botanical Magazine, t. 7123, prepared from a plant flow- 

 ered in the Botanic Garden Glasnevin in 1889. This has 

 large egg-shaped pseudo-bulbs, plaited leaves three inches 

 wide, and a pendulous scape three feet long, bearing about 

 fifty yellow and brown flowers. It is a native of Ocana, 

 Colombia, at an elevation of 6,000 to 9,000 feet. 



L^LIO-C.ATTLEYA CALLISTOGLOSSA, Var. IGNESCENS. This iS 



a ludicrous name for a beautiful new hybrid of Veitchian ' 

 production, which obtained a first-class certificate on Tues- 

 day last. Its parents are Cattleya Gigas and Laelia purpu- 

 rata, and it differs from the type, which Reichenbach 

 described in 1882 as L. callistoglossa, in having a brighter 

 colored lip — a difference due to the use of a larger, richer- 

 colored variety of the Cattleya for the later cross. L. callis- 

 toglossa is still one of the best of the hybrid Cattleyas or 

 Lselias, the large, vv-ell-formed flower and magnificence of 

 the lip being scarcely equaled. 



Cypripedium Countess of Salisbury, a new hybrid be- 

 tween Cypripedium bellatulum andC. barbatum superbum, 

 was shown on Tuesday by Messrs. F. Sander & Co., and 

 received a first-class certificate on account of the rich color- 

 ation of the fiowers, the large drooping petals and dorsal 

 sepal being white, with dark brown spots suffused and 

 lined with rose-purple, the pouch being dull brown flushed 

 with rose. There are several other hybrid Cypripediums 

 from the same parent species, but this is distinct from and 

 superior to them all. 



Cattleya Gigas (labiata Warscewiczii). — Several thou- 

 sands of newly imported plants of this, one of the noblest 

 of all Cattleyas, have been sold at auction in London this 

 week, and I believe there are many thousands more to 

 come. The prices realized were exceptionally high, owing 

 to brisk competition, a proof of the high opinion Orchid 



specialists have of its merits. I never saw a variety of this 

 Cattleya that was worthless. Some of the forms have been 

 named Sanderiana, imperialis, etc. The introduction of a 

 large quantity of it in 1870 by the collector Roezl first brought 

 it into popular favor, although it had previously been spar- 

 ingly represented here from the time of its discovery by 

 Warscewicz in Medellin, Colombia, in 1848. Messrs. Sander 

 & Co. have evidently found a locality where this plant is 

 abundant, and their collector states thathesaw many mag- 

 nificent varieties in flower, and that they flower there twice 

 a year. In cultivation here they flower in July or August, 

 but they often fail to flower at all through being grown in 

 too much shade, this Cattleya preferring plenty of sunlight 

 at all times. 



Vanilla. — An exhaustive historical and descriptive ac- 

 count of the species of Vanilla known to yield aromatic 

 fruits of commercial value has been prepared by Mr. Rolfe, 

 and published in the Kew Bvlletin (1895, pp. 169-178). 

 This paper is of interest, as it shows the relative commer- 

 cial positions of the species and makes clear their nomen- 

 clature, hitherto much confused. Six species are admitted 

 as being of more or less commercial value ; they are V. 

 planifolia (aromatica), the most important and widely cul- 

 tivated in the tropics ; V. Pompona, which yields the vanil- 

 loes of Guadeloupe ; V. Gardner!, the source of Brazilian or 

 Bahia vanilla ; V. phseantha, cultivated in Jamaica and 

 Trinidad, and V. appendiculata and V. odorata, which do 

 not appear to have as yet any commercial importance, 

 though they produce aromatic fruits. Vanilla is said to 

 have been brought to England as a perfume about the year 

 1 510, at the same time as indigo, cochineal and cacao, and 

 ten years earlier than tobacco. An article on the cultiva- 

 tion of the plants, the fertilization of the flowers and curing 

 of the fruits was published in the Kew Bulletin in i888. 

 Mr. Rolfe has also prepared a monograph of the species of 

 Vanilla, which will be published in the journal of the Lin- 

 nsean Society. He admits no less than fifty species, or 

 more than twice as many as were known to Bentham 

 when the Gefiera Plantarum was published twelve years 

 ago, where the genus is said to comprise twenty species. 



Begonia Mrs. I. Heal. — This is another valuable addi- 

 tion to the winter-flowering Begonias obtained by crossing 

 B. Socotrana with the tuberous-rooted kinds. It has lately 

 been raised by Mr. Heal, of Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, who 

 consider it the best of all the Socotrana hybrids. The 

 leaves are five inches across, fleshy, dark green ; the scapes 

 are short and axillary, and the flowers, which are in loose 

 clusters, are each from two to three inches across, of good 

 substance and colored bright crimson. It resembles B. 

 Socotrana in producing chiefly male flowers and in their 

 remaining fresh on the plant a long time. Messrs. Veitch 

 obtained a first-class certificate for it a month ago. B. 

 Socotrana is now in flower at Kew. 



Saintpaulia ionantha. — When well grown this is one of 

 the most charming little warm-house plants. Seeds sown 

 in February and treated as for Gloxinias will produce plants 

 which by the end of September should be a foot across, 

 crowded with healthy leaves and flower-racemes which 

 should continue to develop flowers all through the winter. 

 Plants in four-inch pots bear about twenty expanded flow- 

 ers at once. It is as useful and pleasing for indoor gar- 

 dening as the Pyrenean Ramondia is for the rock-garden. 

 It is totally unlike any other garden-plant introduced from 

 Africa, and were it not known to be truly native of central 

 Africa we should guess it to be of Chinese origin. 



Substitutes for Larch. — Hitherto the European Larch 

 has been the staple ']5lantation tree in this country, its poles 

 having various uses for scaffolding, etc. In recent years, 

 however, it has suffered severely from a canker fungus 

 (Dasyscypha Willkommii), and planters are in consequence 

 looking out for promising substitutes. Dr. Masters came 

 to their aid this week with a lecture before the Royal Hor- 

 ticultural Society on the most likely conifers to take the 

 place of Larch as a plantation tree. He recommended the 

 Corsican Pine as the best of all, the Douglas Fir as a good 



