224 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 328. 



ally admired and were awarded certificates. They were 

 Madame Lemoine, a double white variety of extraordinary 

 vigor and purity, the trusses suggesting well-grown 

 stocks. The other was named Louis Spafh. This has 

 large single flowers of good substance, and packed in very 

 large trusses, the color being rich blue-purple with a sug- 

 gestion of deep crimson in the buds. It is by far the 

 finest of the dark varieties of Lilac hitherto raised. It was 

 exhibited by Mr. A. Waterer, of Knap Hill, who thinks 

 very highly of it. 



Tulips. — A gorgeous display of color has prevailed this 

 spring on several of the most conspicuous lawns and walks 

 at Kew, in large beds full of such brilliant sorts of 

 Tulips as Tulipa elegans, Picotee, macrospeila, fulgens, 

 Gesneriana and Darwin. The value of large masses 

 of color, such as' these make in May, is exceptional when 

 they are placed in positions where they tell with good effect. 

 The use of Tulips, Daffodils, Crocuses, Bluebells (Scilla), 

 Snowdrops and such-like easily managed, free-flowering, 

 effective spring-flowering bulbs is much more general in 

 good gardens in this country than it used to be. Their 

 value is, no doubt, due in some measure to the fact that 

 they come with a rush 'and do not stay too long. The 

 pleasures of the garden are greatly enhanced, in my opin- 

 ion, by following what may be called a kaleidoscopic 

 system of grouping. 



Tacca cristata is a handsome stove-plant, which is 

 rarely seen or heard of outside botanical gardens. A good 

 specimen of it is now in flower in a stove at Kew, where its 

 extraordinary looking heads are a source of much specula- 

 tion on the part of visitors. From a fleshy root-stock spring 

 long-stalked, lanceolate, dark green and purple leaves, not 

 unlike those of Eucharis, but larger and more lanceolate. 

 The scapes are nearly two feet long, and each one is ter- 

 minated by a cluster of small roundish flowers and long 

 filaments, springing from the base of four large conspicu- 

 ous spathe-like bracts. The flowers last about a fortnight. 

 Grown in a hot moist atmosphere, and potted in a rich 

 open soil, this plant soon forms a handsome specimen. I 

 have seen one with over twenty large flower-heads. It is 

 a native of Malaya. Another name for it is Ataccia cris- 

 tata. The order Taccacea? is closely allied to the Amaryl- 

 lids. 



Gloxinera Brilliant. — Under this name Messrs. J. Veitch 

 & Sons exhibited last week a plant which they had raised 

 by crossing Gesnera pyramidalis with a Gloxinia called 

 Radiance, and claim that it is a bigeneric hybrid. The plant 

 itself is like an ordinary Gloxinia, with somewhat shorter 

 leaves with a metallic hue, and tubular rose and scarlet 

 flowers set horizontally and singly on stalks. Before we 

 can be certain of its parentage, or even of the value of 

 the generic name given to this plant, we must know 

 whether its parents are what they are called. The Gloxinia 

 of gardens is not a Gloxinia at all, but a Sinningia, namely, 

 S. speciosa. There is no such species as Gesnera pyra- 

 midalis, and many of the plants called Gesneras in gardens 

 belong to other genera. The whole order as represented 

 in cultivation is in such a state of confusion that we may 

 well hesitate before adding to it by creating another name. 



Cypripedium macrochilum giganteum. — This is a handsome 

 hybrid which Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons have raised from C. 

 grande and C. caudatum Lindeni, and to which the Royal 

 Horticultural Society have awarded a first-class certificate. 

 Its leaves are as fine as those of C. grande, and the flowers 

 are as large, but they have the long tail-like petals of C. 

 caudatum and an immense labellum. Their color is green, 

 with a tinge of rose on the petals, the lip white inside, with 

 a spotted margin, the outside of the pouch being white and 

 green, suffused with crimson. C. macrochilum was raised 

 by the same firm in 1891 from C. longifolium and C. cau- 

 datum Lindeni ; this new variety is superior from the fact 

 that C. grande, one of the handsomest of the Selenipedium 

 hybrids, has been used instead of C. longifolium, a some- 

 what weedy species. 



Disa Langleyensis is a new hybrid of Veitchian origin, its 



parents being D. racemosa and D. tripetaloides. It was 

 shown in flower last week, and obtained a first-class cer- 

 tificate. The flowers are intermediate in size, and their 

 color is rosy lilac, with veins of a deeper shade and a few 

 red spots. There were about a dozen flowers on each 

 scape, and the whole plant bore an attractive, healthy look 

 which augurs well for its future as a garden Orchid. The 

 Disas of this section are rapidly coming to the front ; they 

 are not only exceptionally easy to grow, and require no 

 artificial heat, but they flower freely and the flowers are 

 handsome and lasting. 



Microstylis Scottti has been introduced in quantity 

 lately from Penang. It was shown last week, and obtained 

 a certificate on account of the rich metallic brown and yel- 

 low of its foliage. There are several large panfuls of it at 

 Kew, where it has been cultivated several years. 



Coryanthes Wolfii, described by Lehmann some years 

 ago, was first flowered by Mr. Moore at Glasnevin last 

 year, who sent it in flower to the last meeting of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, where a certificate was awarded it. 

 It differs from all other species of this remarkable genus in 

 having the helmet-like lip almost solid instead of hollow, as 

 is usual. The flowers are large, orange- colored, with 

 brownish spots, and they are as attractive in their queer 

 shape as in color and fragrance. The flowering of Cory- 

 anthes in this country is not of frequent occurrence. Newly 

 imported plants of a new species of Coryanthes were sold 

 by auction last week, the venders being Messrs. F. Sander 

 & Co. The picture of the flowers, exhibited at the same 

 time, represents it as being truly wonderful in the form, 

 size and colors of its flowers. Collectors, however, are not 

 always good artists. 



Some " Rare " Orchids — The tricks of venders and col- 

 lectors of Orchids in the direction of bulling the market 

 have been exposed lately by the arrival of enormous quan- 

 tities of the same sorts as were a short time ago declared 

 to be cleared out by the first collector. I am afraid to say 

 how many thousands of newly imported plants of Cyp- 

 ripedium Charlesworlhii and Cattleya labiata vera I have 

 seen lately in English nurseries. Recently, too, I heard of 

 the arrival of a consignment of plants of Eulophiella Eliza- 

 betha?, notwithstanding the statement published some time 

 ago that no more plants of it could possibly be had. Pos- 

 siMy these statements are believed to be true when made 

 by those who make them ; still, they are decidedly mis- 

 leading and calculated to bring the trade into disrepute. 

 Experienced buyers are not easily deceived, but, no doubt, 

 many of the younger ones are imposed upon by false and 



misleadino: statements. „. rT . , 



London. W. Watson. 



Plant Notes. 



Pyrus betulifolia. 



THIS handsome hardy tree was raised here from seed 

 collected in the mountains of northern China and 

 sent in 1882 by the Russian botanist, Bretschneider, to the 

 Arnold Arboretum. It was first made known* by Bunge, 

 a German botanist who, in 1831, accompanied the Russian 

 commission which traveled overland from St. Petersburg to 

 Peking. Decaisne figured the leaves and young fruit in 

 the first volume of the Jardin Fruitier du Museum, published 

 in 1871-72; and in 1879 it was figured and described by 

 Carriere in the Revue Horlictle from specimens probably 

 produced in the Jardin des Planles. j~ 



Pyrus betulifolia (see figure on page 225 of this issue), as it 

 now appears in Massachusetts gardens, is a tree fifteen to 

 eighteen feet high, with a short, well formed trunk covered 

 with dark, slightly furrowed, scaly bark, and a head of 

 slender, graceful, spreading, more or less pendulous, 

 branches which sweep the ground in a circle fully forty feet 

 in circumference. The young branchlets, when they first 



* Enum. PI. Chin. Bar., 27.— Walpers, Rep. ii., 53.— Maximowicz, Mil. Bio/., 

 ix., 169. 

 t Rev. Hort., 1879, 31S, f. 68, 69. 



