April 27, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



197 



as well as from the English gardens proper. It is interest- 

 ing to find quantities of the feathery Mimosa (Acacia deal- 

 bata), Richardias, Anemones, Lilac and Wallflowers, all, or 

 nearly all, from foreign sources. Orchids are gaining 

 ground yearly as market flowers, considerable variety be- 

 ing now obtainable at the stalls. Good Cattleya-blooms 

 can be purchased for sixpence, and Odontoglossum cris- 

 pum for threepence each. Dendrobiums of several -kinds 

 are generally abundant, D. nobile, perhaps the best of all 

 species, being very largely grown for the English flower- 

 market. Liliums, Daffodils, Tuberoses, Eucharis, Freesias 

 and Gardenias are generally abundant, and consequently 

 cheap. Of course, Azaleas, Camellias, Roses, Carnations, 

 Hyacinths and Tulips are sent in enormous quantities 

 almost every day. 



International Exhibition of Fruit. — This exhibition will 

 be held on a piece of ground adjoining the Thames Em- 

 bankment, and will be opened on September 28th next. 

 Valuable prizes will be offered, and efforts are being made 

 to obtain special features among the exhibits, such as col- 

 lections of fruit-trees, showing the different methods of 

 training, pruning, etc., also collections of fruiting trees 

 grown in pots. It is probable also that lectures and 

 demonstrations will be given, with the view of teach- 

 ing the uninitiated something of the art of producing 

 high-class fruit in England. London will be excep- 

 tionally rich in great horticaltural exhibitions this year. 

 Besides the usual important displays at Regent's Park, the 

 Crystal Palace, the Temple and Chiswick, we shall have 

 the above great collection of fruit and the International 

 Horticultural Exhibition, which will open at Earl's Court on 

 May 7th, and will continue throughout the summer. I 

 have already informed you of the general plan of this exhi- 

 bition, which promises to be a success, the greater portion 

 of the vast space available for horticultural exhibits being 

 already taken. Most of the principal London nurserymen 

 have promised their support. Grottoes with banks of Palms 

 and Ferns, Egyptian, Greek, Italian and other gardens, 

 fountains, variously colored electric lights, high-class 

 music, beside many other attractions, are being rapidly pre- 

 pared. Altogether the exhibition promises to be both 

 novel and interesting to the professional man as well as to 

 the ordinary visitor. The Gardeners' Chronicle states that 

 "the exhibition must be looked upon solely as a commer- 

 cial venture, in which the District Railway and other par- 

 ties are specially interested." Most exhibitions nowadays 

 are commercial ventures, more or less. The play's the 

 thing, after all. ^„ ^,, 



, London. W. Watson. 



Plant Notes. 

 Some Recent Portraits. 



THE colored plate published in The Garden on the 5th 

 of March is devoted to a portrait of Cerinthe retorta, a 

 member of a genus pretty generally distributed over Europe, 

 northern Africa and Asia, and containing some showy and 

 useful border plants. Cerinthe retorta is probably the most 

 beautiful member of the genus, and is a native of the Pelo- 

 ponnesus and of Dalmatia. It is a hardy annual, growing 

 from one to two feet high, with much-branched stems. 

 The lower leaves are obovate and stalked, while the upper 

 leaves clasp the stem by two rounded auricles. The flovv- 

 ers, which protrude above the showy purple floral bracts, 

 are yellow, tipped with purple. This is a plant which 

 might be expected to flourish in the United States, where 

 the hot dry summers should help its development. 



In the issue of the same journal for March 19th there is 

 a colored plate of Streptocarpus Galpini, a species recently 

 discovered in the Transvaal, near Barberton, by Mr. E. E. 

 Galpin, who sent seeds of it to Kew in 1890, where it flow- 

 ered in October of last year. The discoverer describes it 

 as growing in crevices in the cliffs and under rocks, and 

 only on the tops of the mountains just below the highest 

 summits. Streptocarpus Galpini is closely related to S. 



Dunni, and, like that species, has but one leaf and a 

 many-flowered raceme, although it differs from all other 

 species in the form of the corolla, with a short and broad 

 tube and a spreading almost regular limb. The color is 

 rich blue, tinged with purple, the throat being pure white. 

 The flowers are produced in slow succession, and continue 

 to expand in cultivation during about five weeks. Mr. 

 Watson, who has been so successful in hybridizing plants 

 of this genus, was naturally anxious to cross Streptocarpus 

 Galpini with other species and varieties, but his first at- 

 tempt failed to produce good seeds. 



In the March 19th issue of the Gardeners' Chronicle Tri- 

 chodesma physaloides, a handsome boraginaceous plant 

 of southern Africa, is figured. It is a herbaceous peren- 

 nial with a fleshy root-stalk, from which are produced an- 

 nually many erect stems which form clumps two feet 

 across. The leaves are glaucous green, and the corollas, 

 which are an inch across, are pure white. Mr. Adlam, of 

 Pretoria, in the Transvaal, who has secured a stock of this 

 plant, contributes to the columns of our contemporary the 

 information that "Trichodesma physaloides grows near 

 Pretoria on dry bare hill-sides at an elevation from 5,000 

 to 5,500 feet, and that it is an herb one to one and a half 

 feet high with tuberous roots, the leafy stems dying down 

 in our dry winters, appearing again with the first summer 

 rains." The flowers are produced through the early sum- 

 mer, and it is a profuse bloomer. The flower-stalks and 

 sepals are dull purple and the corollas are white. " It is 

 suggested that the treatment given to tuberous Begonias 

 would suit the wants of Trichodesma." 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Miltonopsis Bleui splendens. 



THIS new Orchid is a garden hybrid raised in France 

 by Monsieur Bleu, and it is the most distinct and 

 beautiful among many hybrids of great promise which 

 he has produced. It has attracted great interest, apart 

 from its beauty, from the fact that it is the first hybrid 

 Miltonia ever produced. It is the result of crossing Mil- 

 tonia vexillaria with. M. Roezli, plants which a few years 

 ago were found rather difficult to cultivate, and were gen- 

 erally known as Odontoglossums of the Miltonia-flowered 

 type, in which class were included Odontoglossum Phalae- 

 nopsis, O. Roezli, O. vexillarium and O. Warscewiczi, all of 

 which are now recognized as Miltonias. 



It was only in the spring of 1872, after failures by Hollis 

 and Roezl, that Chesterton succeeded in delivering live 

 plants of Miltonia vexillaria to Messrs. Veitch & Sons, one 

 of which, and the first one to flower in cultivation, flow- 

 ered in February, 1873, ir' Veitchs' establishment. Roezl 

 succeeded in 1873 in delivering one solitary plant of Mil- 

 tonia Roezli to Mr. Bull, of Chelsea, England, for a large 

 price, and this flowered in December the same year, and 

 created as much sensation as M. vexillaria had the pre- 

 vious spring. Thousands have, hovi^ever, been imported 

 since that time of both varieties, and have become so popu- 

 lar and well known that no description of them is necessary. 



The plant of Miltonopsis raised by IMonsieur Bleu was 

 secured by Mr. Sander, of St. Albans, who called it "a 

 marvel," and from him Mr. Ames acquired a part of the 

 plant. 



It is intermediate in character and habit between the 

 parents, and I think will prove of good constitution. The 

 plant now carries tvvo flower-spikes of three flowers each 

 well above the foliage. The flowers measure in length 

 four and a quarter inches, and the lip three and a quarter 

 inches across. The sepals and petals are full, as in M. 

 vexillaria ; the base of the petals is suffused with delicate 

 rosy purple on white ground ; the lip is large and flat, bi- 

 lobed in front, and of a delicate white color, faintly veined 

 with pink ; the base of the lip light chocolate, with twelve 

 to fifteen radiating lines about an inch in length, of a 



