March 30, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



153 



They are now covered with short dense panicles of brick-red 

 and white flowers. The female flowers, with white seed-ves- 

 sels and [arge red wings, are in beautiful contrast to the red 

 male flowers, and handsome white-margined, glaucous foli- 

 age. To have this species bloom well in winter a little rest or 

 partial drying should be given after blooming, say, from June 

 to August. A few cuttings taken now and rooted would make, 

 if placed five in a pan, a neat specimen for ne.xt winter, but 

 would not bloom so well as two-year-old plants which had 

 been rested in summer. 



13. Verschaffeltiana is a rather common, but handsome hy- 

 brid between B. carolinrefolia and B. manicata, and though 

 it is intermediate in character, it is evidently more robust than 

 either parent. It is tall, coarse and unsightly as an old speci- 

 men, but when well grown from year to year as a cutting, it 

 makes a splendid plant. The leaves are palmate, about one 

 foot in diameter, very similar in shape to those of B. manicata. 

 The cymose panicles of lilac-colored flowers have a clear and 

 graceful spread of eighteen inches or more, and are supported 

 on stout stems two feet long. An individual panicle will 

 remain well in bloom for two months, and as flower-stems 

 appear in succession, both from the main stem and side 

 shoots, the plant may be said to bloom the whole winter. Cer- 

 tainly it has presented an effective display of bloom for more 

 than three months. The whole plant presents a one-sided 

 appearance, no matter how it may be exposed to light. This, 

 however, appears to be rather an advantage, as the plants 

 are faced about. 



Wellesley, Mass. T. D. Hatfield. 



Arachnanthe Cathcartii. 



THIS remarkable and beautiful Orchid is, unfortunately, but 

 too rarely seen in flower. Only in a few collections, ap- 

 parently, does the gardener seem to possess the knack of induc- 

 ing it to bloom annually. Recently, at one of the meetings of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society in London, a spike bearing 

 three large flowers was exhibited by Mr. W. Iggulden, of 

 Marston Gardens, Frome, vi'ho grows the plant successfully, 

 and who informed me that previous spikes produced by the 

 plant had borne four flowers. Individually these are about three 

 inches in diameter, with roundish oblong sepals and petals, 

 creamy outside, and pale yellow on the inner surface, which is 

 transversely marked with wavy and often confluent bands of 

 deep reddish brown, which give the segments a beautiful 

 arachnoideous appearance, like that of some Stapelias, Huer- 

 nias and allied genera of AsclepiadecB. The lip is remark- 

 able ; the small side lobes are roundish, inturned and streaked 

 with crimson or red. The middle lobe, however, is much 

 larger, and reminds one very forcibly of the sole of a horse's 

 hoof, with its ridges and depressions. The border is buff-yel- 

 low, while the centre is of a clear shining white — the",whole 

 being very fleshy and brittle, and easily movable at the slight- 

 est touch or breath. The plant itself grows several feet long, 

 like Renanthera coccinea, having stems as thick as a lead-pen- 

 cil. The leaves are borne chiefly on the upper portion, and 

 are six to eight inches long, strap-like and very leathery, with 

 an oblique two-lobed apex. 



The generic name, Arachnanthe, established by Blume, has 

 not yet universally commended itself to gardeners, who in the 

 matter of names are most conservative, and in this particular 

 instance prefer the older, shorter, but, nevertheless, erroneous 

 name of Vanda, applied to the plant by Lindley when describ- 

 ing it in his Folia Orchidacea in 1853. The differences between 

 Arachnanthe and true Vandas are palpable enough, and need 

 not be entered into here. Suffice it to say that for many years 

 the species now under consideration has been considered as 

 not a Vanda at all. The late Professor Reichenbach therefore 

 established a new genus expressly for it, and called the plant 

 Esmeralda Cathcartii. Bentham, however, discovered that 

 Esmeralda of Reichenbach was practically identical with the 

 Arachnanthe of Blume ; hence in that standard work, the 

 Genera Plantarum, the name Arachnanthe has been retained 

 in preference to Esmeralda on account of its priority. 



The discovery of Arachnanthe Clarkei is claimed by Sir Jo- 

 seph Hooker, who, m describing the plant in the Botanical 

 Magazine under tab. 5845, says : " It is a native of hot, damp, 

 shady valleys in the eastern Himalaya, delighting in the neigh- 

 borhood of waterfalls where exposed to constant humidity. . . . 

 It was discovered by myself in 1848, and transmitted to the Cal- 

 cutta Botanic Gardens, where, after flowering, it was sent off to 

 England, but did not survive the voyage." Reichenbach, 

 however, in reference to the discovery, states in the Xenia 

 OreAidacea that " long before the expedition of Drs. Hooker 

 and Thomson, Dr. Lindley had received it from Griffith with 



numerous flowers of other curiosities preserved in large 

 glasses of alcohol." Although numerous attempts were made 

 to introduce living plants, the failures to do so were many. It 

 appears, however, that at length iVIessrs. Veitch were not only 

 successful in obtaining living specimens, but were the first to 

 flower the plant in March, 1870, and in October of the same 

 year a plant six feet high produced several flowers in the col- 

 lection of Mr. C. Stead, of I'aildon, near Leeds. 



At one time great difficulty was experienced in the cultiva- 

 tion of A. Cathcartii (which is named after Mr. James F. Cath- 

 cart, who was one of the earliest explorers in the eastern 

 Himalayas), but now that its wants are better understood, it 

 ought to be managed with tolerable ease. It may Ije either 

 framed on a wall or grown in a pot filled with clean crocks, the 

 surface of which should be covered with fresh sphagnum. In 

 the latter case it will be necessary, owing to the rambling habit 

 of the plant, to put a stick to it. There should always be plenty 

 of moisture in the atmosphere, and if the upper portion of the 

 plant is allowed to assume a more or less horizontal position 

 there is, for some reason or other, more chance of flowers than 

 if the shoots are trained bolt upright. The thermometer in the 

 winter months should register from sixty to sixty-five degrees, 

 Fahrenheit, at least during the day, with a drop of only a few 

 degrees at night-time. In the summer months this matter will 

 be more easily regulated, but attention should then always be 

 given to watering and occasional syringing, so as to supply 

 continually themoisture which must inevitably go off in evapo- 

 ration, especially if air is admitted into the houses to any extent. 

 Isleworth, London. yolin Weathers. 



Chrysanthemum Blight. 



IN an article on Fungus Troubles in the Cutting-beds, pub- 

 lished in Garden "and Forest February 24, 1892, page 

 91, Dr. Halsted calls attention to the severe blighting of Chrys- 

 anthemum-foliage and damping-off of Chrysanthemum-cut- 

 tings due to a fungus of the genus Septoria. A Septoria was 

 also found abundant last fall on Chrysanthemums at the sta- 

 tion and at greenhouses in this vicinity. Specimens of this 

 Septoria submitted to Dr. Halsted for examination were found 

 to be identical with the one referred to in the ardcle above 

 mentioned. During the winter some experiments have been 

 tried for the purpose of controlling this disease, and at least 

 one of the fungicides used promises to give good success. 



Cuttings from diseased plants were struck about January ist 

 and potted off in due time. The blighted foliage was removed 

 February 8th, and the plants were divided into three series. 

 Series i was sprayed once a week with potassium sulphide ; 

 series 3 was sprayed once a week with ammoniacal solution of 

 copper carbonate ; series 3 was left untreated for comparison 

 with the other two series. Without giving detailed notes of 

 the experiments, it may be said that the potassium sulphide 

 solution has given good results, but not so good as the ammo- 

 niacal solution of copper carbonate. Plants treated with the 

 latter remedy show less of the disease, and are much more 

 thriftyandvigorousthanare the same varieties of series i and 3. 



Further experiments with other fungicides are also in prog- 

 ress, and it is expected that the results will be published when 

 the work is completed. Attention is here called to the benefi- 

 cial effects which have thus far attended the use of the copper 

 carbonate solution, with the hope that Chrysanthemum-grow- 

 ers may be led to make further tests of this remedy. It may 

 be well to state that excessive or careless use of the remedy 

 has proved injurious to the foliage of some plants. In the ex- 

 periments here reported, however, no injury to the foliage is 

 apparent. The solution is, of course, applied to all parts of 

 the plant in a very fine spray without drenching them. The 

 formula used is five ounces of copper carbonate dissolved in 

 three pints of strong ammonia (twenty-six per cent.) and di- 

 luted to fifty gallons. A convenient way is to dilute the mix- 

 ture to six quarts, and keep this strong solution on hand in 

 tightly corked bottles. When the dilute solution is needed for 

 use it may be easily prepared by adding a gallon of water to 

 one pint of the strong solution. 



Geneva, N. Y. 



S. A. Beach. 



Manettia bicolor.— This pretty winter-blooming greenhouse 

 climber, although very common, is rarely well grown. The 

 best success is secured when young plants are grown all sum- 

 mer without blooming. Old plants, when cut back, never 

 break well at the bottom and always look ragged. I have 

 usually grown my specimens in pyramidal form, by taking 

 long, pliant stakes and tying them in at the top, but it always 

 appeared to me that the plant, unable to reach its limit of 

 growth, became top-heavy. This winter I placed one near 



