April 6, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



163 



green color, and the papilionaceous flowers rich red, tinged 

 with black in the lower portions, and borne in axillary clusters. 

 The llovvers have an odd, but by no means unattractive ap- 

 pearance, and the plant is easy to grow, thriving in common 

 l-iotting soil. Fitting companions to this, requiring similar 

 treatment, are Solannm jasminoides, with its innumerable 

 pendulous clusters of pure white star-shaped tlowers, each 

 having a showy bunch of yellow anthers in the centre, aiid the 

 graceful, thrifty Tecoma australis, whose yellowish tubular 

 flowers, with brownish throat, are produced abundantly in 

 large drooping panicles. Manettia bicolor must not be "for- 

 gotten, for. its yellow-tipped, bright scarlet llowers have a 

 niatchless way of imparting brilliance to dull old walls. The 

 list is far from being exhausted, but a sufficient number have 

 been mentioned to show what can be accomplished in this 

 direction without much trouble. 



CanibnclRe. Mass. M. Barker. 



Odontoglossum Rossii. 



VyiTH the exception of Odontoglossum crispum and O. Pes- 

 catorei, there is, perhaps, no representative of the "-enus 

 so generally useful as O. Rossii. In 1837 the collector Ross 

 mtroduced this species from Oaxaca, in Mexico, to England 

 where it was placed in the hot-houses of his patron, Mr. Bar- 

 ker. Usually from three to five flowers are borne on the more 

 or less arching scapes. At a recent show of the Roval Horti- 

 cultural Society in London a plant was exhibited, on one scape 

 of which, a branched one, as manv as fifteen laro-e flowers 

 were fully expanded. The varietv, w'hich had been grown in 

 the collection of Mr. Philip Crowley, Waddon House, Croydon 

 was an exceptionally good one. The sepals were heavily 

 blotched with chocolate-brown on a cream-colored ground 

 while the petals and lip were of a beautifuf soft pink delicately 

 veined with rose. At the base the petals were, of course 

 heavily blotched like the sepals, and the clear lemon-colored 

 callus, streaked at the sides with red, gave the whole a soft and 

 charming appearance. 



Amateurs about to undertake the culture of a few choice 

 and easily grown Orchids could not do better than include 

 several plants of O. Rossii. Fair, healthy pieces may be ob- 

 tained as low as half a dollar, although exceptionally fine varie- 

 ties sell much higher. O. Rossii usually blooms durino- the 

 coldest and dullest months of the year, and if proper treatment 

 IS given, the flowers will continue in a fresh unspotted condi- 

 tion for a considerable time. The plants thrive best in a light- 

 some position ; the best means to secure this is to grow them 

 m small square baskets or pans, which can be easily suspended 

 within a foot or two of the glass by wires. A compost of 

 rough fibrous peat and clean fresh sphagnum, thoroughly 

 drained, is suitable, and the winter temperature at night should 

 not be allowed to sink below fifty degrees, Fahrenheit. Atten- 

 tion to watering is always necessarv,''larger and more frequent 

 supplies being given when the plants are vigorously growing 

 than vvhen they are taking a rest and ripening off the pseudo- 

 bulbs formed during the year. 

 Isleworth, Londjii. ^ John Weathers. 



Two New Poppies. 



A \'ARIETY of Poppy called the Golden Gate, an introduc- 



-^ lion of last year, will please all who admire the Shirley 



Foppy, as It IS an improvement on that favorite varietv in size 



general thriftiness, diversity of coloring, and in the length of 



Its blooming-time. ° 



Plants from seed sown May 23d began to bloom in two 

 months, and grew to a height of three feet. The leaves are 

 bright green, thin, gracefully curved and ruffled, and finely, 

 though very irregularly, cut. They are somewhat hairy, and 

 the blossom-stems are more so, being covered with a fine 

 tiown, which IS sometimes of a silky liglu red. The buds bend 

 over upon the stalk m shepherd's-crook fashion, the loop thus 

 . formed measuring about two inches. The blossoms are sin- 

 gle, semi-doubIe,and more rarely perfectly double. Thesingle 

 ones which are perhaps the most attractive, have four semi- 

 circular petals the outer pair of which sometimes open flat, 

 making a shallow saucer, while the inner ones fold together 

 and stand up like a cup. But this arrangement is variable. 



As tlie larger blossoms opened thev were measured, it being 

 so much more satisfactory, as Thoreau somewhere says, to be 

 exact, and not to say that a thing is '■ large " or " very large " 

 Ihere was a dark rich red one three and one-half inches broad, 

 ine flowers of this color were always single or slightly double, 

 and had at the base of each petal a fan-shaped black spot edged 

 with white. There was a bright cherry-red one, of the shide 

 of color seen on some Japanese fans. This had a white mar- 



gin, and measured three and one-fourth inches. Then a clear 

 delicate pink, with white edge, of the same size • a double o-ray 

 and red of two and one-fourth inches. All these colors in <n-eat 

 abundance, as well as clear white, rosy lilac, small vervdolible 

 scarlet ones, and, most striking of all the combinations, a sin- 

 gle one, of which the outer petals were scarlet, and the inner 

 ones white, flaked with cherry. 



All the Poppy-petals had a silky sheen and a beautiful creas- 

 ing or crimping of their delicate texture, which was truly a 

 delight to the eye. A stray plant coming up at a little distance 

 trom the others, and having room to develop, grew in reo-ular 

 bush-form, twenty-two inches high and twenty-one iiiches 

 broad. When measured it had one blossom, two dry-seed 

 vessels and twenty-seven buds. Its coloring was the reverse 

 of the typical Shirley strain, being creamy white, with pink 

 edges. The stamens are yellow in light-colored Poppies and 

 black or purplish in the dark red ones. One charm of the 

 single blossom is its curious seed-vessel with the velvet star- 

 like stigma, plum-colored velvet in the dark Poppies and 

 white in the others. The Golden Gate Poppies are in profuse 

 bloom till the time of hard frosts, though the number has by 

 that time dwindled to four or five fresti ones each day. 



The Flag of Truce, also new last year, makes a wonderfully 

 stout growth, a little over three feet in height. It has a ruffled 

 tringy leaf, often ten inches in length, of a thick smooth tex- 

 ture like a cabbage-leaf, which it resembles in color There 

 IS no down about any part of the plant. The bloom is sino-le 

 white, shaped like a Tulip, a giant Tulip, for it is four inches 

 across. The correspondingly large seed-vessel is white with 

 a green velvet stigma. The filaments are pure white' with 

 clear yellow stamens, which soon turn brown. The blossom 

 lasts only about six hours, the petals falling off early in the 

 afternoon of the day it opens. One of the great petals Was four 

 and one-fourth inches across, and showed strong white veins 

 It IS a curious Poppy, but it must extend the period of its 

 "truce ' before it will be thought very valuable as a earden 

 ornament. ^ 



West Hartford, Conn. ^ Amy Whilllian. 



Nepenthes. 



T^HE East Indian Pitcher-plants form one of the most inter- 

 ■^ esting groups of ornamental-leaved plants now in cultiva- 

 tion, and are deserving of much wider distribution. Nepenthes 

 require the conditions of stove foliage plants, a temperature of 

 sixty-five to seventy degrees and a moist atmosphere. With 

 sufficient heat and moisture but little difficulty will be found in 

 their cultivation. The compost best suited to them is com- 

 posed of rough fibrous peat and sphagnum-moss ; a coverino- 

 of living sphagnum is beneficial, and also improves the ap"- 

 pearance. Wooden Orchid-baskets are useful for growing 

 these plants, and display the curious pitchers to good advan- 

 tage ; these are not absolutely essential, and I have seen fine 

 specimens grown in pots or pans ; an abundance of drainage 

 material should be supplied to those in pots to prevent their 

 becoming sodden. 



Propagation is usually effected by cuttings, or by seeds when 

 they can be procured, but as these plants are dioecious, seeds 

 are not common in the ordinary collection. Ouite a laro-e num- 

 ber of species are now known, 'and the genus has been much 

 enriched by garden hybrids produced both in Europe and in 

 the United States. Many of the first and finest hybrids on this 

 side of the water were originated by the late James Taplin, 

 who crossed several species sixteen or eighteen years ago •' 

 several thousands of seedlings were raised therefrom, many of 

 which have since been named and introduced by various 

 firms. It is difficult to select a short list from the many good 

 forms now in cultivation ; among those worthy of general 

 cultivation are N. distillatoria. This old novelty is of stronc^ 

 and rapid growth, and produces large bright green pitchers*- 

 the stalks usually show a curl or half-hitch, and seem to indi- 

 cate the tendril-like nature of these curious appendages. N. 

 distillatoria rubra is an improvement on the type; the pitchers 

 are frequently ten inches long and are suffused with red over 

 nearly their whole surface. 



N. Chelsoni was among the earlier hybrids produced in 

 Eiirope, and originated at Messrs. Veitch's well-known estab- 

 lishment. It is a handsome variety ; the pitchers are rather 

 short and broad, averaging from three to four inches in length 

 light green in ground color, profusely spotted and blotched 

 with dull red. N. Hookeriana is also a well-known species of 

 vigorous growth and handsome form ; the leaves are broad 

 dark green and slightly pubescent ; the pitchers are formed at 

 the end of long stalks, and are dark green with reddish mark- 

 ings. Like those of the preceding variety, thev have two 

 broad wings with ciliated edges down the front of 'the pitchers 



