AVGUST 17, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



389 



drought happened only once duriny our six weeks' sojourn 

 in the county. , . , ,, ., 



New York. Anna Murray Vatl. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Pterost\'rax hispidum. 



THE genus Pterostyrax, which is now composed of 

 three or four ligneous species of China and Japan, 

 is closely related to our American Halesias or Snowdrop- 



Fig. 63.— Pleroslyrax hispidum. 



trees ; indeed, Bentham and Hooker, in the Genera Pla?i- 

 iaruvL, united the two genera, but we follow Professor Gray 

 in believing that "the terminal paniculate inflorescence, 

 quinary flowers, and thinner, smaller fruit " is sufficient to 

 keep the two genera apart. 



The character of the inflorescence of Pterostyrax is 

 shown in the accompanying illustration on this page, made 

 from a ])hotograph of a branch of Pterostyrax hispidum 

 which flowered profusely last year in the Arnold Arboretum, 

 where it was introduced several years ago from France, 

 and where in a sheltered situation it has grown into a small 

 tree now ten or twelve feet in height. 



Pterostyrax hispidum is quite generally distributed in 

 the northern parts of Japan and in central China where, 

 according to Dr. Henry's notes, it be- 

 comes a tree fifty feet in height. The 

 flowers, which are pure white and indi- 

 vidually small, are produced in this 

 country from the middle to the end of 

 June. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



AT the meeting of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society held on Tuesday 

 last (July 26th), there were an unusual 

 number of interesting and new plants 

 exhibited. The bi-monthly meetings of 

 this society have now become the 

 generally recognized "parade-ground" 

 for new and rare plants of all kinds, 

 nurserymen as well as amateurs send- 

 ing all their new introductions and new 

 productions to be submitted to the vari- 

 ous committees. This is as it should be. 

 We now feel certain that every new 

 plant of any promise in England is likely 

 to be sent to these meetings to be judged 

 by the committees and reported upon in 

 the various horticultural papers. 



Orchids. — There were some plants of 

 very exceptional interest among the sev- 

 eral collections exhibited, the best being 

 from Messrs. Hugh Low & Co., of the 

 Clapton nurseries. Cattleya Schilleriana, 

 var. Lowiana, is like the type in every 

 respect except the color of the labellum, 

 which is almost wholly of a clear lilac- 

 blue, like that of Zygopetalum Mackayi. 

 As a Cattleya, it is a plant of more 

 than ordinary interest. Sobralia Lowii 

 is a variety of S. macrantha nana, with 

 flowers of a rich rosy crimson color. Mr. 

 Norman Cookson exhibited three hand- 

 some hybrid Cypripediums, namely, C. 

 Bryan, raised from C. loevigatum and C. 

 argus, and resembling C. Morganiae, ex- 

 cept that the petals are shorter and the 

 spots upon them larger ; C. Youngianum 

 superbum, raised from C. Veitchii and C. 

 Isevigatum, is another hybrid similar in 

 appearance to C. Morganiae, and is 

 really handsome in the form and color 

 of its flowers ; the third one is C. Taut- 

 zianvim, the parents of which were C. 

 barbatum and C. niveum. It has a large 

 well-formed flower, with broad flat seg- 

 ments, the color pale rosy purple, darker 

 on the labellum. 



A spike of Stauropsis lissochiloides 

 (Vanda Batemannii), from the gardens 

 of F. Wigan, Esq., of East Sheen, was 

 much admired for its rich colors ; it 

 measured two and a half feet in length and bore ten 

 open flowers with as many buds, each flower being 

 two inches across, very fleshy and colored with rich 

 purplish rose on the back, bright citron-yellow in front 

 with brown-red spots, the lip being crimson. Although 



