258 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 223. 



certificate. As I have already pointed out, it resembles C. 

 amethystoglossa in pseudo-bulb and foliage. The flowers 

 are borne on erect spikes, strong pseudo-bulbs producing 

 as many as twenty flowers on a spike ; they are six inches 

 in diameter, the sepals oblong lanceolate, the petals slightly 

 broader and undulated, and the lips three-lobed, the central 

 one spreading as in C. Leopoldii, the lateral ones folding 

 over the column. The color is soft rosy crimson, with a 

 bronzy metallic shade, especially on the young flowers, 

 the front lobe of the lip being rich crimson. The flowers 

 may be likened to those of Lselia elegans. A quan- 

 tity of plants of this Cattleya were sold by auction in 

 London to-day ; they were in good condition, and 

 realized from one to five guineas each for plants likely to 

 grow. 



LffiLio-CATTLEYA Phcebe. — This IS a hybrid between Cat- 

 tleya Mossiee (female) and Lselia cinnabarina, which has 

 been raised and flowered by Mr. N. C. Cookson, who exhib- 

 ited it last week at the meeting of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, and obtained for -it a first-class certificate. It is 

 intermediate in character between the two parents, the 

 color of the flowers being yellow, with a crimson labellum. 

 Messrs. Veitchs' L. Hippolyta was raised by them from the 

 same species, but they made L. cinnabarina the seed- 

 bearing parent. 



LffiLiA Latona was exhibited at the same meeting by 

 Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, and also was awarded a certifi- 

 cate. It is a hybrid betvs^een L. cinnabarina (female) and 

 L. purpurata, and resembles the latter in habit and foliage, 

 but is smaller, as also are the fiovirers, their color being 

 deep yellow with a dark crimson labellum. 



Veitchs' Manual of Orchidaceous Plants. — Part viii. of 

 this most valuable contribution to Orchidology has recently 

 been published. It contains synopses of the following 

 genera : Oncidium, Miltonia, Ada, Brassia, Gomeza, lonop- 

 sis and Ornithocephalus. As in the previous numbers, the 

 authors have limited themselves to species known to be 

 in cultivation and possessed of some claims to the notice 

 of horticulturists. Maps showing the geographical distribu- 

 tion of the species are given, and, in addition to careful de- 

 scriptions of the species and interesting historical informa- 

 tion, there are also numerous illustrations representing the 

 flowers of some of the most attractive kinds. In dealing 

 with the genus Oncidium the authors had a task of some 

 difficulty. There are upward of three hundred described 

 species, a large proportion of which have been in cultiva- 

 tion, but owing to the "miffiness" of many species they 

 have never become established in gardens. The number 

 of species of Oncidium described by Messrs. Veitch is 114, 

 and of these, as they point out, a great many cannot be 

 kept in health in English gardens more than two or three 

 years. The genus is rich in beautiful-flowered species, but 

 many of them have this great drawback of bad behavior 

 under artificial treatment. Of course, there are some kinds, 

 such, for instance, as O. flexuosum, O. Batemannianum, 

 O. bracteatum, O. leucochilum and O. sphacelatum, which 

 are as happy in our plant-houses as is Odontoglossum cris- 

 pum. The Miltonias are treated upon exhaustively, as they 

 deserve to be, and Brassia also obtains a fair share 

 of notice. The other genera are dealt with in the 

 same careful, discriminative manner which characterizes 

 the whole of the work published up to the present. I am 

 informed that the book will be completed in about two 

 more parts. 



Bulbous Irises. — A lecture by Professor M. Foster on 

 these plants was one of the chief attractions at the last 

 meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society. The professor 

 finds time to devote to the cultivation of a rich collection 

 of Irises of all kinds in his garden at Cambridge, and he is 

 now the acknowledged first authority on garden Irises in 

 England. But he admits that he has only lately come to 

 understand the bulbous section of the genus represented 

 by I. reticulata, I. xiphioides, I. alata, I. Sindjarensis, etc., 

 which are generally notoriously bad to keep in the garden 

 if not properly managed. He recommended growers to 



keep this section in a part of the garden by themselves, 

 and to lift the bulbs in summer so as to get them thor- 

 oughly ripened by drought, planting them again in late 

 autumn in rich soil. The plants, in fact, should be treated 

 as the Dutch treat their Tulips, Hyacinths, etc., and then 

 there is little difficulty in keeping them and getting them 

 to flower freely. I have before stated that we have proved 

 at Kew that this treatment is suitable for I. Susiana and its 

 allies. 



The Dandelion as a Garden-plant. — In a piece of semi- 

 wild ground attached to Kew there are now some thou- 

 sands of plants of the common Dandelion in full bloom. 

 They are broad tufts of rich green leaves with from a 

 dozen to twenty flower-heads springing from each tuft, 

 each head two inches across and colored a rich golden- 

 orange. I know nothing that flowers so early in the year 

 that will compare with these Dandelions for richness of 

 color, floriferousness and elegance. I therefore venture to 

 recommend the common ubiquitous Dandelion as a first- 

 rate plant for spring effect in the garden. I can imagine a 

 few beds of well-cultivated plants nicely placed on the 

 lawn, and glistening in the May sunshine like burnished 

 gold, surpassing any yellow flowers possible out-of-doors in 

 May. The Dandelion is capable of being turned to excellent 

 account in the flower-garden. We have beds of Tulips, 

 Hyacinths, Daffodils, etc., in April and May, but nothing 

 like to, nor even so good as, these big-flowered golden- 

 yellow Dandelions. The French know the value of this 

 plant as a vegetable, and have grown it largely for the last 

 twenty years. According to Monsieur Vilmorin, it was 

 formerly gathered from the fields and meadows where it 

 grows wild, but as it became an important article of 

 commerce in Paris its systematic cultivation and improve- 

 ment naturally followed, with the result that improved 

 varieties have been raised and their cultivation is now 

 largely practiced. The whole of the plant is used for salad, 

 the leaves being, as a rule, blanched by covering them with 

 pots, as in the treatment of Sea-kale. We do not know the 

 Dandelion as a garden-vegetable in England, but it de- 

 serves a place as a "bedding" plant, on account of its 

 beautiful flowers. If, instead of being common with us, it 

 had been obtained from Japan or China or New Zealand, we 

 should have recognized its beauty and fitness for the garden 

 by using it extensively for spring effect. No doubt, it 

 might be improved, or, at any rate, variety of form, size 

 and shade of the flowers could be obtained by cultivation 

 and selection, just as the French have obtained consider- 

 able variety in the leaves. „_ ,„ 

 London. tV. Watson. 



Cultural Department. 



Bulbous Irises. 



PROFESSOR MICHAEL FOSTER, of Cambridge Uni- 

 versity, England, the highest authority on Irises, re- 

 cently delivered a lecture on the bulbous section of the 

 Genus, which will be published in full in the Proceed- 

 ings of the Royal Horticultural Society. The lecture, from 

 which we take the extracts which follow, was illustrated 

 by living specimens of many of the species, and also by 

 drawings borrowed from the Royal Gardens at Kew. 



Iris Sisyrinchium is one of the most widespread, and is re- 

 lated to the bulbous Irises of South Africa. It is characterized 

 by the bulb being wrapped in a kind of network ; it has two 

 narrow leaves, from between which the flower-spike ascends. 

 The flowers open about midday, and close about four o'clock, 

 three or four slightly fragrant flowers being borne upon each 

 spike. It is not a great acquisition to the gardener, and is 

 rather difficult to grow in England. It requires a very hot 

 summer and severe baking, and the bulbs should be taken up 

 and well dried each season. 



I. reticulata has a bulb very similar to the foregoing, but the 

 leaves are linear and have four sides. The one generally re- 

 garded as the type has violet flowers, but this form is very 

 rare, and is never found among imported bulbs of this species. 

 I. reticulata Krelagei is a purple variety. The segments are 



