54 



Garden and Forest. 



| Number 468. 



brush-like spikes of fragrant flowers it is an attractive 

 Orchid, and, indeed, it is worth a place in collections if 

 only on account of its large pseudo-bulbs and fleshy leaves. 

 D. Bancroftianum is also from Australia. 



Mormodes ladium. — This is a new species, recently flow- 

 ered in the collection of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, Tring, 

 and named by Mr. Rolfe. It is very near Mormodes 

 igneum of Lindley, figured in Lemaire's fardin Fl. , iv. , 330, 

 the scape being erect, a foot long, bearing about a dozen 

 large flowers, the sepals and petals colored dark red, the 

 lip paler and yellowish brown. A variety, also flowered 

 at Tring and named luteum, was shown last week and 

 obtained an award of merit. It differs from the type in 

 having bright yellow flowers. The two were introduced 

 together from Peru. All the Mormodes are handsome- 

 flowered Orchids, and were it not for the fact of their behav- 

 ing badly under cultivation they would rank with the best 

 of garden Orchids. M. luxatum, M. Ocanas, M. pardinum 

 and M. Colossus are introduced from time to time, and for 

 the first year or so afterward are features of English col- 

 lections, soon, however, to disappear. We giow them 

 along with their cousins, the Catasetums. 



Odontoglossum crispum Stevensi. — Baron Schroeder has, 

 under this name, a plant which is generally considered to 

 be the handsomest of the many select varieties of Odonto- 

 glossum crispum, and he exhibited it last week in finer con- 

 dition than has ever been seen before. The spike was a 

 yard long, gracefully arched, and it bore fourteen flowers, 

 each five inches across, white, heavily blotched with reddish 

 brown, the lip with a very large blotch in front of the crest. 

 The size of the flowers and the richness of the markings 

 are its most striking features. The plant has been in the 

 famous Dell collection since 1886. The keen competition 

 for the possession of these uncommon forms of Odonto- 

 glossum was exemplified at the auction rooms this week, 

 when Messrs. Sander & Co. obtained for a supposed hybrid, 

 O. crispum x luteopurpureum, the sum of 105 guineas. 

 The flowers of this plant were three inches in diameter, 

 yellow, with blotches of chestnut brown. 



Oncidium sPLENnmuM is a most useful winter-flowering 

 Orchid. It requites warm greenhouse treatment and plenty 

 of sunlight to develop fully its broad pseudo-bulbs, thick, 

 fleshy leaves and tall spikes of yellow and brown flowers. 

 These last are in fine condition now. It is difficult to 

 understand those botanists who insist on calling this plant 

 a variety of O. tigrinum, also flowering with us now. 

 There is some resemblance in the size and color of the 

 flowers of the two, but in the form of the labellum, the size 

 of the basal lobes, as well as in the character of the spike, 

 there is a wide difference. Then, again, O. tigrinum is 

 deliriously fragrant, while O. splendidum has no odor. In 

 the characters of pseudo-bulb and leaf there is a marked 

 difference between these two plants, O. tigrinum having 

 thick, smooth pseudo-bulbs, with two, three or four com- 

 paratively thin, curved, shining green, acuminate leaves, 

 while in O. splendidum the pseudo-bulbs are flatfish, rugose, 

 and each bears only one oblong, blunt leaf, which is very 

 thick, erect, and becomes purplish with age. Another 

 important difference is that while O. tigrinum is easy to 

 grow and keep in health for an indefinite time O. splen- 

 didum soon wears out under artificial treatment. These 

 differences have been spoken of as "no more than what 

 might have been brought about by local environment," an 

 argument which might be used with much greater reason 

 against many species and even some genera. 



Bulbophyllum Dayanum. — Although this plant has been in 

 cultivation since 1865, when it was named by Reichenbach 

 in compliment to that eminent amateur Orchid grower, the 

 late Mr. John Day, it is rarely flowered. A plant of it was 

 shown in flower last week from the collection of the Hon. 

 Walter Rothschild, Tring, where Bulbophyllums of all kinds 

 are grown exceptionally well. B. Dayanum belongs to the 

 small, compact -growing set, the pseudo- bulbs being 

 crowded on thin creeping rhizomes, roundish, smooth, 

 about an inch in diameter and of a dark red-purple color. 



The leaves are three to four inches long, elliptic, green 

 above, reddish beneath. The flowers are clustered and 

 borne singly on short petioles ; they are each an inch in 

 diameter, the sepals broadly ovate, green, with purple 

 streaks and fringed with long hairs; the petals smaller, 

 colored red and yellow ; the lip trigonous, green, with 

 ridges of blood-red on the disk. It is a native of Tenas- 

 serim. There is a figure of it in The Botanical Magazine, 

 t. 61 19. An example of it has been in the Kew collection 

 many years. 



Orchid Farming. — An interesting paper is published in 

 the Bulletin of the Botanical Department, Jamaica, for 

 November, 1896, by Mr. R. Thomson, formerly Super- 

 intendent of the Botanical Department, Jamaica, recom- 

 mending the naturalization of Odontoglossum crispum in 

 the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, with the view of supplying 

 the now enormous demand for this Orchid which, through 

 various causes, is being rapidly exterminated from its home 

 in the Colombian Andes. He proposes that groups or 

 colonies of this Orchid should be established at intervals of 

 a mile or so in the forest where they would seed, and ' in 

 the course of ten years scores of thousands of plants would 

 be naturalized and fit for export annually." Mr. Thomson 

 points out that about twenty-five per cent of the plants of 

 this Odontoglossum exported from Colombia perish in 

 transit to Europe, owing to the long distance from the col- 

 lecting grounds to the port, a difficulty which would not 

 be experienced in Jamaica. O. crispum is certainly by far 

 the most popular of all garden Orchids. Mr. Thomson 

 estimates the annual export of plants to Europe at not less 

 than 100,000 for the last twenty years. He also says that 

 " this year several great Orchid growers have requisitioned 

 250,000 plants." Fifteen years ago this Orchid was obtain- 

 able in the Pacho district, the home of the best forms, for a 

 couple of dollars a hundred, when a peon collected as 

 many as 200 a day. Now he collects about ten a day, and 

 consequently the price to him has increased tenfold. In a 

 state of nature, seeds of this Orchid are produced in vast 

 abundance, and being very light and chaff-like are dis- 

 seminated by millions. Mr. Thomson's suggestion is well 

 worthy of consideration, not only in relation to Odonto- 

 glossum crispum, but also to many Orchids which are in 

 great demand in Europe, but which are difficult to get from 

 their native countries. With few exceptions, the multiplica- 

 tion of Orchids by the usual methods of seeds, cuttings or 

 division is practically impossible. It would, therefore, be 

 worth while to apply the experiment recommended by Mr. 

 TJiomson in the case of various Orchids and in different 

 countries. " At present we do not even know whether 

 varieties of Orchids come true from seeds. Such rarities 

 as O. crispum, var. Stevensi, O. Pescatorei Veitchii, Cypri- 

 pedium Stonei platytasnium and C. Fairreanum would be 

 excellent plants to start with. 



London. 



W. Waison. 



Cultural Department. 



Notes on Cherries. 



A BOUT ten years ago several varieties of Cherries, chiefly 

 ■f*- European importations, were received from Professor 

 J. L. Budd, of Ames, Iowa, and planted on the experimental 

 grounds here. Most of the trees have fruited for a number 

 of years, but very little has been published concerning their 

 behavior in this climate. The soil on which they were grown 

 is a heavy sandy loam underlaid with gravel. 



As would naturally be supposed, the trees are all perfectly 

 hardy, and have made a good growth. Of nineteen varieties 

 which fruited during the past season only a few possess any 

 superiority to our older cultivated varieties which would war- 

 rant a more extended trial. The greater portion of them are 

 in no way better than the old Early Richmond. The following 

 notes were taken during the fruiting season, and are given 

 here for the benefit of those who may wish to plant some of 

 these varieties. 



Brusseler Braune makes a larger tree than Early Richmond, 

 and has shown itself to be a heavy bearer. The fruit is large 

 and nearly black when fully ripe ; stem two inches long; flesh 



