88 



Garden and Forest. 



[NUMBERfZOg. 



where steam-plows, steam-threshers, etc., are sometimes em- 

 ployed ; but in the low land between Gorlitz and Berlin large 

 tracts of the country are sandy and infertile, and here Scotch 

 Pines have been planted on soil where little else but Lichens 

 seem to be able to get a foothold. Some stretches are covered 

 with Heath (principally Calluna vulgaris), and the young Pine- 

 trees are set in the midst of it. The planting of these Pines is 

 chiefly done in the spring ; they grow slowly on such poor soil, 

 and do not get to be of very large size. n: r ^ b 



Arnold Arboretum . y. ^. jdCk. 



The Swan's-neck Orchids. 



THERE is a very remarkable American genus of plants known 

 as Cycnoches, or Swan's-neck Orchids, which occupies a 

 kind of sporadic or transitory position in our collections, though 

 its species possess a quaint kind of beauty which is peculiarly 

 their own, and none are more interesting to the naturalist. Like 

 Catasetum, it has the peculiar habit of producing two very 

 different kinds of flowers on the same plant, and these have a 

 trick of appearing in the most unexpected and extraordinary 

 fashion. Sometimes a plant whose behavior has been of the 

 most orthodox character will suddenly produce flowers of a 

 totally novel kind, in some respects almost as different as are 

 those of Cattleya and Odontoglossuin from each other. Occa- 

 sionally the two kinds will be borne in different racemes on 

 opposite sides of the same pseudo-bulb, and more rarely they 

 will even appear intermixed on the same raceme. For many 

 years the significance of these phenomena remained a com- 

 plete mystery, and the early history of the genus is a mass of 

 confusion. For some time I have been trying to unravel the 

 tangled history of the genus, and only quite recently have I 

 succeeded in getting to the bottom of the matter so far as 

 existing material is concerned. And now I am anxious to 

 obtain such further materials as will enable me to complete 

 a monograph of this most interesting group. 



The genus was originally described by Dr. Lindley, from a 

 single flower ; and the generic name is in allusion to the 

 long slender curved column, which very closely resembles the 

 neck of a swan, though this character is only exhibited by one 

 of the two kinds of flowers. 



No sooner had this original species become established in 

 cultivation than it began to exhibit those peculiar propensities 

 for which the genus soon became famous, as will be seen from 

 the following extract from the Botanical Register for August, 

 1837: "In August, 1835," writes Lindley, in a note under t. 

 1,947a, " Mr. Willmer, of Oldfield, near Birmingham, sent me a 

 specimen of a Cycnoches, which had broad petals, a short col- 

 umn, hooded and dilated at the apex, and a broad roundisli 

 lip, gibbous at the base, and with its stalk much shorter than 

 the column. It was, however, destitute of scent, while 

 Cycnoches Loddigesii has, as is well known, a delicious odour 

 of vanilla. I had no doubt of its being a distinct species, and 

 called it C. cucullatum. But in the autumn of 1836, in the 

 garden of the Horticultural Society, a plant of Cycnoches pro- 

 duced from the opposite sides of the same stem two racemes ; 

 those of the one raceme were the well-known fragrant flowers 

 of Cycnoches Loddigesii, and of the other the scenfless 

 flowers of the new C. cucullatum." 



A few years later a still more remarkable case appeared, as 

 is recorded by Bateman at t. 40 of his splendid work, The 

 OrchidacecB of Mexico and Guatemala, in 1843: "Strange 

 things," he writes, " and no less strange than true, have already 

 been recorded of Orchidaceous plants, but the case which is 

 represented in the accompanying plate casts into the shade all 

 former frolics of this Protean tribe. The facts are briefly as 

 follows: Among Mr. Skinner's earliest Guatemala collections, 

 attention was particularly directed to the specimens of a plant 

 which to the habit of a Cycnoches joined the long, pendulous 

 stems of a Gongora, and for the possession of which, in a living 

 state, no small anxiety was entertained. Some plants were 

 speedily transmitted by Mr. Skinner, but these on flowering 

 proved to be merely the old C. ventricosum. A mistake was 

 of course suspected, and Mr. Skinner, being again applied to, 

 sent over a fresh supply of plants, for the authenticity of which 

 he vouched ; but these were scarcely settled in the stove 

 when flowers of C. ventricosum were again produced. Mr. 

 Skinner being importuned for the third time, and being then 

 on the point of returning to this country, determined to take 

 one of the plants under his special protection during the voy- 

 age, which, flowering on the passage, seemed to preclude the 

 possibihty of further confusion or disappointment. The spec- 

 imens produced at sea were exhibited, and the plant itself 

 placed in the stove at Knypersley, where it commenced grow- 

 ing with the utmost vigour. The season of flowering soon 

 arrived, but brought with it a recurrence of the former scene 



of astonishment and vexation, for the blossoms, instead of 

 those of the coveted novelty, were not distinguishable from 

 the old C. ventricosum. These were still hanging to the stem, 

 when the inexplicable plant sent forth a spike of a totally dif- 

 ferent character, and which was, in fact, precisely similar to 

 the specimens gathered in Guatemala, and to those produced 

 on the voyage." 



No solution, however, of these mysterious phenomena was 

 arrived at, except that they were what gardeners call " sports," 

 and Lindley indulged in some rather wild speculations about 

 the species being masquerading under false faces. But we 

 now know that the species are sexually dimorphic, and that 

 the phenomena observed were simply the production of the 

 two kinds of flowers on the same individual. And this has 

 furnished the clue to a very curious error committed by the 

 artist who drew Bateman's plate. Instead of showing thefemale 

 flowers of C. Egertonianum he has introduced the males of 

 C. ventricosum, probably because the former were too much 

 withered to be restored, and moreover the two were so much 

 alike that they were actually thought identical. It is highly 

 curious that the female of one species should be so much more 

 like the male of another species than like its own, yet such is 

 the case, and the plate in question exhibits the peculiar phe- 

 nomenon of the males of different species growing on the same 

 pseudo-bulb. Probably the artist acted on instructions, for the 

 female of C. Egertonianum had been thrice mistaken for C. 

 ventricosum. "The female of the latter species was then unknown. 



This great diversity between the sexes, however, does not 

 extend to all the species of the genus, for in the case of 

 C. chlorochilon, perhaps the best-known species in gardens at 

 the present time, the differences between the male and female 

 flowers are confined to the sexual organs — that is to the ovary 

 and column — as the sepals, petals and lip are quite identical 

 in each. This fact is very curious. Although the species has 

 been known for upward of half a century, and has been 

 largely cultivated, the female flowers do not appear to have 

 been observed before the summer of 1891, when they appeared 

 both with M. Lehaie, in Belgium, and with Messrs. F. Sander 

 & Co., in England. It is just conceivable that they may have 

 appeared before and not been noticed, owing to their similar- 

 ity to the males, though no existing figure of the plant and no 

 dried specimen that I have come across shows them. How- 

 ever, their occurrence was a matter of considerable interest, 

 for it led to the clearing up of the confusion into which the 

 history of the genus had fallen. It is now evident that the 

 genus contains two distinct sections, one in which the sepals, 

 petals and lip are practically identical in the two sexes, and 

 the other in which they are quite dissimilar. In both, how- 

 ever, they are borne in separate flowers. In the females the 

 ovary is normally developed and very stout, and the column 

 short and stout, with a pair of fleshy, triangular wings, and the 

 stigma perfect, but without the anther. In the males, on the 

 contrary, the ovary is reduced to the pedicel of the flower and 

 much thinner, while the column is long and slender, without 

 the wings or stigma, but with the anther and poUinia normally 

 developed. Thus the term swan's-neck only applies to the 

 column of the male flower. 



The section Eucycnoches (which contains the original spe- 

 cies of the genus), in which the two sexes are nearly alike, 

 comprises the following six species : 



1. C. chlorochilon. Flowers very large, perianth similar and 

 equal in the two sexes, bright yellowish green, the lip yellowish 

 white, with a prominent dark green crest near its base. 

 Racemes few-flowered. Native of Guiana and Venezuela. 



2. C. ventricosum. Male racemes longer, and with more 

 numerous and smaller flowers than the preceding, and the lip 

 cream-white. Female flowers fewer, rather larger and more 

 fleshy than the males. Native of Guatemala. This is said to 

 have been seen to sport into C. Egertonianum, an error which 

 arose from the females of that species having been confounded 

 with the males of the present one. 



3. C. Lehmanni. An Ecuadorean species, closely allied to 

 C. ventricosum. The male flowers are yellow with a green 

 callus; the females are unknown. It is not in cultivation, and 

 I only know it by description. 



4. C. Loddigesii. Male racemes about 4-6-flowered ; sepals 

 and petals brownish green, the former with darker spots ; lip 

 whifish, spotted with blood-red near the base. Female flowers 

 fewer, rather larger, and more fleshy. Native of Surinam. 



5. C. Haagei. Male racemes long, pendulous, and bearing 

 numerous medium-sized flowers, much like those of the fol- 

 lowing species. Females unknown. I only know the species 

 by description. Native of Brazil. 



6. C. versicolor. Near the preceding, but apparently dis- 

 tinct. The sepals and petals of the male are of a very peculiar 



