February 21, iS 



•] 



Garden and Forest. 



73 



in sufficient quantity for eating. It grows on stumps of 

 Oak or Chestnut, and may attain a large size, especially in 

 the south. As its French name, Langue de Bceuf, implies, 

 it resembles a thick tongue projecting from the stump, 

 with a very short stipe. When young the surface is cov- 

 ered with a beautiful peach-colored or red down, but when 

 mature the upper surface is deep red and mucilaginous. 

 The under surface is pale buff color and covered with 

 minute papilla; like a tongue. This is due to the fact that 

 here the tubes are not in close contact with one another, 

 . but nearly free. Sections of the fungus show a streaked 

 red surface like a steak. The taste, when gathered, is 

 slightly, but agreeably, acid. The fungus is unmistakable, 

 and when broiled has a most extraordinary resemblance to 

 a tenderloin-steak. It is to be regretted that it is not more 

 common with us. 



With regard to the teeth-bearing fungi, Hydneas, little 

 need be said. They are not very numerous, and the 

 greater part of them are either too tough or too small to be 

 of value as food. We have the large, scaly, dark brown or 

 blackish form, much esteemed in Germany, under the name 

 of Habichtschwamm, Hydnum imbricatum, and the more 

 delicate Hydnum repandum, with a pileus varying from 

 dull yellow-red to nearly white, with teeth lighter-colored 

 than the rest of the fungus. Practically none of our teeth- 



Fig. 15. — Clavaria aurea, Coral-fungus. Small specimen, life-size — edible. 



bearing fungi are poisonous, but, as a rule, they have a some- 

 what bitter taste, liked by some persons, but not by the writer. 

 Besides the three groups of the gill, tube and teeth-bear- 

 ing fungi, there is a small group of coral-shaped fungi, 

 some of which are of good size and very palatable. We 

 need only refer to Fig. 15, which will give the reader a 

 sufficiently clear idea of the common and larger species of 

 this group. None of the coral-shaped fungi are poisonous, 

 and the beginner can venture to eat any of them without 

 hesitation. 



Harvard College. W- Or. ScZr/OW. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Musa aurantiaca. — This is a handsome-flowered dwarf 

 Musa, which was discovered in Assam by Mr. Gustave 

 Mann, who sent it to Mr. Wendland, of the Herrenhausen 

 Botanic Garden, some years ago, where it flowered lately, 

 and the inflorescence has been forwarded to Kew. It is 

 like the old M. coccinea in habit and stature, the stems be- 

 ing only two or three feet long, the leaves three feet long, 

 and the terminal, erect, stout scape nearly a foot long. The 

 charm of the plant is in the rich orange color of the large 

 bracts which clothe the upper part of the scape and partly 



enclose the yellow flowers, which occur usually in threes. 

 There are examples of this species in the Palm-house at 

 Kew, where it forms crowded clusters of stems in pots 

 about fifteen inches in diameter. It is a worthy com- 

 panion to M. coccinea and M. Mannii, and these three 

 Musas deserve to bein every good collection of stove-plants. 



Begonia Paul Bruant. — Among the best of all winter- 

 flowering Begonias is this species. There are plants of it 

 in the Kew collection which have been in flower for the 

 past fortnight, and promise to continue in full display for 

 several weeks more. They are well formed, two feet high 

 and through, with elegant foliage ; the stalks nine inches 

 long, red, hairy; the blades of the usual oblique, sinuously 

 toothed character, and from six to nine inches long. The 

 racemes are on scapes as long as the leaf-stalks, and each 

 raceme is a broad, branched, elegant bunch of pink flowers 

 and bracts. The female flowers predominate, and their 

 beauty is largely due to the conspicuous broad-winged 

 ovary, which is of a darker shade of rose than the petals ; 

 each flower is over an inch across. There are no Begonias 

 at Kew so beautiful in January and February as this one. 

 It was raised and sent out by Bruant, of Poitiers, in 1892. 

 I suspect its parents are B. manicata and B. phyllomaniaca. 



Dendrobium atroviolaceum. — This is a much more at- 

 tractive Orchid than was anticipated when it was first 

 introduced by Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons in 1889, and named 

 by Mr. Rolfe. A specimen of it in flower, shown a few 

 weeks ago, was awarded a first-class certificate by the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, and it has since been figured or de- 

 scribed and recommended by most of the gardening papers 

 here. In general characters it approaches D. macrophyl- 

 lum (Veitchii), and it is a native of the same place as that 

 species— that is, New Guinea. It differs, however, in its 

 shorter pseudo-bulbs and leaves, and in the brighter color 

 and glabrousness of its large flowers. The racemes are 

 erect, eight inches long, bearing from four to eight flowers, 

 which are two and a half inches across, creamy yellow, 

 with purple spots, except the lip, which is rich violet-purple 

 inside, deep green outside. It is a much more attractive 

 Orchid than D. macrophyllum. 



Dendrobium Wardianum. — An importation of magnifi- 

 cent plants of this beautiful species was sold by auction 

 this week. Orchid importers are so much cleverer now 

 than they were fifteen or twenty years ago that they can 

 import all the better-known and easily collected species in 

 as healthy a condition as though they had been taken from 

 the trees upon which they grew immediately into the sales- 

 rooms. I have seen this species of Dendrobium fetch very 

 high prices at sales, but it was in the days when the plants 

 used generally to arrive in bad condition ; now one can 

 get very good specimens of it for about the same price as 

 Camellias. Although D. Wardianum is fairly good-natured 

 under cultivation, it is one which gradually weakens and 

 rarely survives five years' treatment in an Orchid-house. 

 Luckily, however, it is apparently plentiful in Assam. 

 There are few more beautiful objects than a good speci- 

 men of D. Wardianum when in flower. 



Cypripedium Charlesworthii. — This new and distinct spe- 

 cies bids fair to soon become as plentiful and cheap as the 

 commonest of all C. insigne. Several large importations 

 of it have lately been sold by auction in London since it 

 was first introduced some three months ago, and plants 

 which then sold for guineas would not now fetch shillings. 

 Messrs. Low & Co. offered this week a large consignment of 

 plants in perfect health, although only just received from 

 the home of this species, which I suspect is upper Burma. 

 While small plants realized about ten shillings a dozen, 

 large tufts, with twenty or thirty growths, were sold for 

 about two pounds. It is satisfactory to be able to state 

 that this species is at least as happy under cultivation as 

 its near ally C. Spicerianum, and good, easily grown Or- 

 chids are always welome, in however large quantities they 

 may come. 



Iris Bakeriana. — All the Irises of the reticulata group are 

 delightful spring-flowering plants, which any one may 



