484 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 511 



veins, and the extreme delicacy of color is due to this con- 

 trasted petal. 



Inquiry in several directions has so far failed to discover 

 in this country the successful cultivation of these two asso- 

 ciated bog Orchids, but Mr. Thomas Meehan informs me 

 that the late Comte de Paris, an enthusiastic Orchid collec- 

 tor, had standing orders in this country for native plants, 

 and reported entire success in naturalizing both Pogonia 

 and Calopogon. It would be interesting to know what 

 treatment they received, that we might in time have 

 more meadows filled with this all too short-seasoned 

 flower. 



Hairisburg, Pa. "*. L. DOiR. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



A New Dendrobium. — Over two thousand newly im- 

 ported plants of a supposed new species of Dendrobium 

 were sold by auction to-day at the instance of Messrs. F. 

 Sander & Co. The catalogue description states that the 

 flowers are large and produced in profusion. The labellum 

 is broad and of a deep crimson color, the sepals and petals 

 thick and overlapping as in the Moth Orchil, and of all 

 shades of color. The bulbs literally bristle with old flower- 

 spikes. This is a plant for the florist, and it will become 

 popular, as it is a winter bloomer. The Bismarck islanders 

 told the collector that the flowering season was December 

 and January, which he verified from Mr. Ohlsen, the mis- 

 sionary. The different and quite new habitat of this species 

 accounts for its winter flowering, and although it may bear 

 some resemblance to the magnificent Dendrobium Phala j - 

 nopsis, it is totally distinct from that plant. It may prove 

 the winter-flowering companion of that species. There is 

 a great variation among these plants. The bulbs differ so 

 greatly that possibly more than one species is present. The 

 collector wrote that he found the plants growing among 

 low shrubs in almost pure sand and debris, and that the 

 flowers were exquisite and of all shades of color, covering 

 the shrubs with mvriads of butterfly-like blooms. 



Leea amabilis splendens. — This is an improvement upon 

 the type, which was introduced from Borneo fifteen 

 years ago by Messrs. Veitch & Sons, when it received much 

 attention because of the rich color and elegance of its 

 foliage, and was appropriately described as resembling a 

 shrubby Cissus discolor. It failed, however, to become an 

 established favorite, chiefly on account of its leaves losing 

 their variegation when the plants grew to any size. I am 

 told that in the tropics it grows to a large size and is then 

 wholly green. I lately saw in the nursery of Mr. Bause 

 some plants of the variety above named, which he says 

 have so far retained the rich dark velvety green and silvery 

 feather-like variegation when grown to a good size, and, 

 as the band of white extends, not only along the midrib, but 

 also along the main lateral veins, the beauty of the plant is 

 of a high order. 



The Pampas Grass and its Allies. — This is the subject 

 of an interesting paper by Dr. O. Stapf, of Kew, the first 

 part of which is published this week in The Gardeners' 

 Chronicle. Although fourteen species of Gynerium have 

 been described, only two or three of them have ever found 

 a place among garden plants, and only one, namely, G. 

 argentum, the Pampas Grass, has become really popular. 

 A second species, G. saccharoides, a native of South 

 America, is grown at Kew and in a few other gardens. Its 

 large, elegant plumes are extensively imported and sold for 

 decorative purposes under the name of Uva Grass. This 

 species differs markedly from the Pampas Grass in its tall 

 Bamboo-like culms, which are from twenty to thirty feet high, 

 with leaves as much as twelve feet long. A parallel case 

 was that of the Bamboo-like Arundo donax and the tufted 

 A. conspicua, until Dr. Stapf discovered that the latter is 

 not an Arundo, but a distinct genus, which I believe he has 

 named Cortaderia. 



Acnida australis. — Seeds of this plant have recently been 



received at Kew, accompanied by particulars of its growth 

 and habit, as observed in the peninsular portion of the state 

 of Florida, where it would appear to grow to an extraordi- 

 nary size in a few months It is described as an annual, 

 making most of its growth from May to August, and ripen- 

 ing its fruit in September or October. In rich boggy soil its 

 stem sometimes grows to a circumference of more than three 

 feet, with a height of twenty-five feet and branches capable 

 of supporting the weight of a heavy man. Specimens have 

 been described as ''thirty feet high and as big as a barrel." 

 The trunk is described as dark crimson in color, the leaves 

 of a shining rich green and the flower-spike pyramidal. 

 For an annual this is a phenomenal plant. Its behavior at 

 Kew will be watched with interest. The genus is a near 

 ally to Amarantus, and there are four or five species, all 

 American. 



Winter-flowering Begonias. — Three new hybrids raised 

 from Begonia Socotrana and tuberous varieties have lately 

 been distributed by the raisers, Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons. 

 They are now nicely in flower in the Begonia-house at Kew, 

 and are remarkable for their sturdiness of stem and closer 

 approximation to the tuberous-rooted sorts than any other 

 of the Socotrana hybrids. The flowers are large and full, 

 fleshy, and the colors are rich. They are : Ensign, which 

 has semidouble flowers over two inches in diameter borne 

 on erect peduncles ; their color is rich rose-pink ; Mrs. 

 Heal is dwarfer, the peduncles are numerous, erect and 

 long enough to raise the flowers well above the foliage ; 

 they are three inches in diameter and colored deep car- 

 mine ; Myra has long, slightly arching peduncles, and the 

 flowers are of a bright rose-carmine color. As is the case 

 with all the Socotrana hybrids, the flowers of these new 

 ones are persistent. B. Socotrana is now flowering freely 

 in the stoves at Kew. 



Cannell's Zonal Pelargoniums. — Mr. Cannell's exhibit of 

 cut blooms of Zonal Pelargoniums was perhaps the most 

 striking feature, outside the Chrysanthemums, at the 

 Aquarium exhibition last week. No one has done so 

 much to improve and popularize these plants as he, and 

 no one appears to enter into competition with him as a 

 grower and exhibitor of them. A table stretching across 

 the exhibition hall was entirely filled with large pyramidal, 

 bouquet-like bunches of flowers of exceptionally large size 

 and lustrous colors, an altogether marvelous production 

 for mid-November in this climate. I noted the following 

 as the most attractive in size, form and color of bloom : 

 Niagara, pure white ; Red Eagle, scarlet, white e} r e ; Gertrude 

 Pearson, pink, white eye ; Miss E. Wilson, pale salmon- 

 pink, red eye; Countess deMorella, scarlet, large white eye; 

 Miss P. Routh, salmon-pink, very large ; A. Tennyson, scar- 

 let ; Duchess of Marlborough, pale salmon, darker centre, 

 very large. I believe I have already written you some par- 

 ticulars of Mr. Cannell's cultural methods for these plants. 

 The essential conditions are liberal cultivation in pots out- 

 of-doors during summer, the removal of all flower-buds 

 until October, housing the plants in a light greenhouse 

 close to the roof-glass, and keeping the atmosphere dry by 

 means of thin hot-water pipes fixed among the plants or 

 directly over them. The plants are encouraged to make a 

 few shoots and the flower-heads are removed as soon as 

 the flowers are over. The difference between the Zonal 

 Pelargonium as seen in the ordinary way and as grown by 

 Mr. Cannell is as great as that between a half-starved 

 Chrysanthemum and the specimens one sees at exhibitions. 



London. W. WatSOH. 



Cultural Department. 



Seasonable Work. 

 \UE have had some wintry weather quite early this year, 

 * » there having been two moderately heavy snowfalls before 

 Thanksgiving Day, November 25th, and one or two quite se- 

 vere frosts. Until November 19th, when we had our first 

 snowfall, the season was unusually open here, and Pansies, 

 hardy Chrysanthemums, Geraniums, Verbenas, etc., were still 

 blooming in the open. As a rule, we can carry on outdoor 



