Garden and Forest. 



[Number 202. 



it looks wel], keeps well, and is very easy to grow, while 

 as a cropper it has no equal. The favorite white grape 

 here is Muscat of Alexandria, which is almost as good all 

 round as Gros Colman. The king of apples here is Cox's 

 Orange Pippin. It has a handsome skin, packed full of good 

 meat ; it keeps well and fetches a good price ; at any rate 

 I was asked threepence a piece for apples of this sort a 

 few days ago. 



LucuLiAS. — A tall shapely specimen of L. gratissima, 

 bearing five or six dozen large heads of its handsome 

 fragrant flowers, is now an attraction in a warm conserva- 

 torv at Kew, while near by a smaller specimen of L. 

 Pinceana, also in bloom, serves to show the difference 

 between these two. Luculia is an old garden genus : at 

 any rate, it has been in cultivation in England since 1823 ; 

 and yet it is only rarel)' cultivated as a conservatory plant, 

 notwithstanding its great beauty and delicious fragrance. 

 Probably it linds much more general favor in American 

 gardens than it does here. I have seen small plants of it 

 grown in six-inch pots, the branches not more than eighteen 

 inches long, and perhaps three or four. of them each bear- 

 ing large corymbs of flowers. A few years ago a large 

 quantity of seeds of L. gratissima was received from India 

 and was distributed liberally, yet the plant remains scarce 

 here. Cuttings do not strike root easily, but a stock of 

 plants may be raised from layers. If the branches of a 

 flowering specimen are layered they are certain to flower 

 -the year following, if properly treated. In an ordinary 

 greenhouse here this Luculia would not flower, although 

 it grew freely, but on being removed into a warm, sunny 

 greenhouse it has, after a year's growth, flowered most 

 profusely. L. gratissima is a native of temperate Hima- 

 laya, from Bhotan to' Nepal, where it forms a spreading 

 Cinchona-like shrub, twelve to sixteen feet in height. The 

 leaves are lanceolate, about six inches long ; the corymbs 

 are terminal, often six or eight inches through, crowded 

 with long-tubed pale pink fleshy flowers, the lobes spread- 

 ing out flat and forming a limb one and a half inches across. 

 They expand in December and last a month or more. L. 

 Pinceana differs from the above in having thicker, more 

 closely nerved leaves, and a pair of tubercles at the base 

 of each corolla-lobe. It is a native of the Khasia !Moun- 

 tains. 



Cattleya Rex. — This plant was described in the Garden- 

 ers' Chronicle a year ago by Mr. J. O'Brien, who had seen 

 it in the establishment of L'Horticulture Internationale at 

 Brussels. A picture of the flowers was published in Part 

 I. of Lindenia (English edition) last February, and the 

 plant was described as having been " originally discovered 

 by Monsieur J. Linden during his travels in South America, 

 and again thirty years later by Wallis, who proclaimed it 

 the most beautiful of Caltleyas." Living plants of it did 

 not, however, reach Europe until last year, when it ap- 

 peared in the collection of the above com])any, flowering 

 in December. This species is said to be like C. maxima 

 in the number of flowers produced on each raceme, and 

 also in the length of the pseudo-bulbs. The flowers are as 

 large as those of C. aurea, and are not unlike the white 

 form of that species known as C. Imschootiana. Six flow- 

 ers are represented on a raceme in the picture published in 

 Lindenia, and I have been informed that old inflorescences 

 show the scars of twice that nimiber. Such a character 

 ought to be sufficient to remove this plant from the C. 

 labiata section of the genus although it was placed in that 

 section by Mr. O'Brien. A few months ago several plants 

 of C. Rex were disposed of in England by auction sale, 

 and realized exceptionally high prices. iMessrs. Linden 

 now advertise an auction sale of 150 plants of this Cattleya 

 in the rooms of ^lessrs. Prothero & Morris, on January the 

 8th next. The advertisement is sufficiently interesting to 

 be quoted. It is as follows: "Cattleya Rex. The most 

 famous C>rchid ever introduced. Good imported plants, 

 five, ten and twenty guineas each, according to size. The 

 whole of the rest of the importation to be sold by auction 

 on January 8th. Monsieur Ellner, our intrepid collector, 



who has been searching for it for two years, writes that 'it 

 is impossible to find any more.' " 



Cymeidium cyperifolium. — I recently saw this in flower at 

 St. Albans, and plants of it have this week been offered for 

 sale at the auction rooms. It is not unlike C. giganteum 

 or C. Lowianum in habit, but the leaves are shorter, nar- 

 rower and more elegant, and the flower-bracts are larger. 

 The scape is shorter than the leaves, semi-erect, bearing 

 from four to seven flowers ; sepals and petals linear lance- 

 olate, acute, pale green and yellow, streaked with red- 

 brown ; lip narrow, pubescent within, white with red spots. 

 The size of the flowers is almost that of C. giganteum. 

 The plant is decidedly ornamental. It appears to thrive 

 under the same treatment as answers for C. Lowianum. It 

 is a native of the sub-tropical Himalayas. So far as I can 

 ascertain, it had never been in cultivation until Messrs. 

 Sander & Co. introduced it this year. 



Cyperorchis Mastersii. — A plant of this somewhat rare 

 Orchid is now in flower in the cool house at Kew. it has 

 erect, narrow bright green strap-shaped leaves, eighteen 

 inches long, and almost horizontal scapes a foot long, de- 

 curved and bearing six flowers two inches long, white, 

 wiih a few spots of red on the labellum and scented like 

 Almonds. The general form of the flower is that of Cym- 

 bidium eburneum, but smaller. C. Mastersii was intro- 

 duced many years ago from Assam. Lindley figured and 

 described it in his Bot.tnical Register, 1845 (t- 50), asaCym- 

 bidium, a name by which it is still best known in gardens. 

 It enjoys t'ne same treatment as suits Cymbidium eburneum. 

 A few weeks ago a second species of Cyperorchis — namely, 

 C. elegans — was in flower in the same house at Kew. It 

 differs from C. ^Mastersii in having a drooping, many-flow- 

 ered raceme, and flowers of a pale straw color. Both this 

 and the above remain in bloom a month or more. The 

 only other known species of Cyperorchis is named C. 

 cochleare. This has brownish green sepals and petals, and 

 a yellow lip spotted with red. I have never seen living 

 plants of it. It will be seen that the genus is made up of 

 three species previously known as Cymbidiums. Sir Joseph 

 Hooker states in his Flora of Bri/ish Itidia that, " except 

 by the narrow lip, long hypochile, and small usually or- 

 bicular epichile (or midlobe), it is not easy to separate this 

 genus from Cymbidium . . . and Cyperorchis Mastersii 

 resembles very much Cymbidium eburneum." 



Chrysanthemums — a correction. Through a slip of the 

 pen I stated in the letter published on December 2d that 

 five hundred new varieties of Chrysanthemums were sub- 

 mitted for certificates to the National Chrysanthemum 

 Society at their exhibition held in November. The number 

 ought to have been stated at fifty. 



London. 



W. Walson. 



Cultural Department. 



A Remodeled Plant-house. 



SOME of my professional friends have been curious to know 

 how I managed a greenhouse without any attention during 

 tlie long day. From their point of view, witli an eye to a sure 

 crop, the inevitable changes of temperature seem fatal to suc- 

 cess. Yet the thing is easily done, especially with a small 

 house, and I do not find that moderate variations have any se- 

 rious effect on the growth of my plants or their flowering, Of 

 course, night temperature is important, and is more under 

 control. By keeping the ventilators open, more or less accord- 

 ing as the air outside is still or blusterous, and by keeping a 

 fair fire going, the plants have a plentiful supply of fresh air 

 and are not chilled, even should there be a sudden drop of the 

 thermometer. Some time since I described in Garden and 

 Forest (vol. iv., pp. 55 and 671 the small, cheaply constructed 

 liouse which has answered my moderate requirements, and 

 has been a source of much pleasure at very little cost and care. 

 At first there was trouble with the ventilation ; the cold air 

 from the top of the house stiffened the muscles of my back as 

 I worked at the benches, and could scarcely have been good 

 for the plants. However, I quickly turned the current of air 

 by putting in a bellows-ventilator in the end of the bouse. 

 This was done by making an opening two and a half feet long 



