June i, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



257 



furnished with a linear leaf at the middle, arc produced in 

 about three-flowered corymbose umbels ; they are funnel- 

 shaped, three or four inches long-, the expanded limb three 

 inches across, with oblong-lanceolate segments, those of 

 the inner and outer rows nearly uniform^ an inch broad in 

 the middle, white, tinged with green on the outside, on the 

 inside, white above, white, tinged with yellow-green, be- 

 low, and covered, except in the centre, with minute claret- 

 brown spots. This fine plant is named in honor of its 

 introducers, Messrs. Hugh Low & Co., the well-known nur- 

 serymen, with whom it flowered in July of last year. 



Restrepia striata (t. 7233), a curious Orchid from New 

 Granada, interesting to botanists from its peculiar struc- 

 ture, but of little value from a horticultural point of view. 



Lilium Grayii (t. 7234), a well-known plant, first gathered 

 by Dr. Asa Gray in 1840 on Roan Mountain, in North Caro- 

 lina, and first figured in one of the early numbers of this 

 journal (i., 19, f. 4). The portrait in The Botanical Maga- 

 zine represents dark red flowers, and was made from a 

 plant which flowered at Kew during the summer of 1891, 



Fi^. 4g. — Asarum Crux-Andrse. — See page 256. 



although the flovi'ers are usually bright yellow, like those 

 of the ordinary form of the closely allied Lilium Canadense. 



Pilocarpus pennatifolius (t. 7235), a small shrub of the 

 Rue family, and a native of Brazil, with large unequally 

 pinnate leaves and slender racemes, a foot in length, of 

 small red-brown flowers. This handsome shrub was in- 

 troduced into European gardens forty years ago by Libon 

 as an ornamental plant. Much later it has been learned that 

 it is one of the principal sources of the drug Jaborandi, used 

 in Brazil as a sialogogue and diaphoretic. The parts used 

 are the dried leaves, which leave in the mouth an aromatic, 

 slightly bitter, warm taste, and contain a volatile oil and 

 an alkaloid, also volatile, to which the name pilocarpine 

 has been applied. 



Didymocarpus lacunosa (t. 7236), a lovely little plant of 

 the Gesneraea family, and a native of Penang, with in- 

 tensely violet-blue nodding flowers, and a recent introduc- 

 tion of the Messrs. Veitch. 



The Garde7i, in its issue of May 7th, contains colored 

 plates of Erica hyemalis, figured for the first time in this 

 journal a few weeks ago, and of its white variety. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



North American Cypripediums. — We have a beautiful dis- 

 play of these plants in the cool Orchid-house at Kew, for 

 which we are indebted to the curator of the Harvard 

 Botanic Gardens and to Mr. Allen. The roots, which were 

 received last autumn, were planted in pans in peat soil, and 

 placed in a cold frame for the winter, where they were kept 

 well watered. As soon as the flower-buds pushed up, the 

 plants were removed into a cool greenhouse, where they 

 developed beautiful leaves and perfect, richly colored flow- 

 ers. No plants have been more admired this spring than 

 these pans of C. spectabile, C. pubescens and C. acaule, 

 some of which bear seven flowers, while they have all 

 lasted well. This method of treatment has been found per- 

 fectly satisfactory. In the open ground we have only 

 moderate success with these beautiful plants. Some of our 

 friends declare that these northern species of Cypripedium 

 are prettier in flower than the highly-prized tropical species. 



DiSAs. — Thi^genus is gradually 

 growing in importance among 

 popular garden Orchids. A few 

 years ago we possessed only D. 

 grandiflora, the Pride of Table 

 Mountain ; but we now have two 

 other pretty-flowered and easily 

 managed species in D. racemosa 

 and D. tripetaloides, besides a 

 hybrid named D. Veitchii, which 

 was raised from D. grandiflora 

 and D. racemosa, and which 

 promises to be a first-rate garden 

 plant. A fourth species of prom- 

 ise has lately been introduced 

 from IMadagascar, and flowered 

 in England, D. incarnata, of 

 Lindley, described by him in his 

 Genera and Species of Orchida- 

 ceous Plants in 1838, but not in- 

 troduced alive till now. It has 

 fleshy, strap-shaped leaves nine 

 inches to a foot long, and erect 

 spikes of bright orange-red flow- 

 ers, with yellow dorsal sepals. 

 The plant thrives in a cool house, 

 and the flowers last a long time. 

 It may cross with the Cape spe- 

 cies and yield something good in 

 color. 



OdONTOGLOSSUM PLATYCHEILI'M is 



a new species, which recently 

 flowered in the rich collection 

 of Mr. R. J. Measures, Camber- 

 well, who purchased it among an odd lot of Orchids, 

 from Mr. Lee, of Leatherhead, some years ago. Its 

 habitat, therefore, is at present unknown. I\Ir. John 

 Weathers, Assistant Secretary to the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society, has prepared a sketch of the plant with a 

 description for the Gardeners' Chronicle, from which I quote 

 the following : "Pseudo-bulbs ovoid, slightly compressed, 

 ancipitous, monophyllous ; leaves oblong lanceolate, 8 

 inches long, one inch broad ; scape short, erect, two (or 

 more .') flowered ; pedicels one to two inches long ; flowers 

 one and a half to two inches in diameter; sepals oblong 

 lanceolate, white, with blotches of chestnut-brown at the 

 base, keeled ; petals similar, but not keeled ; lip clawed, 

 with a broadly cordate reniform blade, undulated, pale rose, 

 with scattered blotches of crimson-purple ; crest bilobed ; 

 column creamy white, clavate. The flowers suggest Bras- 

 sia rather than Odontoglossum." 



Cattleya Victoria Regina. — Messrs. F. Sander & Co., 

 the discoverers and introducers of this new Cattleya, exhib- 

 ited a plant of it in flower at the last meeting of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, where it was awarded a first-class 



