3 2 4 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 33S. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Sobralia Veitchii. — This is the latest noteworthy success 

 in Orchid hybridization achieved by Messrs. J. Veitch & 

 Sons, who exhibited a plant of it in flower for the first time 

 last Tuesday, when it was awarded a first-class certificate. 

 Its parents are S. xantholeuca and S. macrantha, the latter 

 being the mother. The habit and flowers of the hybrid 

 are similar to those of S. macrantha, except in color, the 

 sepals and petals being white, with the faintest flush of 

 pink, and the lip is yellow, with a conspicuous blotch of 

 rose-purple on the front lobe. This is the first hybrid 

 Sobralia raised artificially. The seeds were sown in 1887, 

 so that the plants have been seven years in growing to 

 flowering size. 



Ijelio-Cattleya Zephyra. — The parents of this new 

 Veitchian hybrid are Lselia xanthina and Cattleya Mendeli, 

 and when shown this week for the first time it easily ob- 

 tained a first-class certificate. It is not unlike C. Rex in 

 general characters, especially in the size, form and colors 

 of the flowers, which are medium-sized, the sepals and 

 petals yellowish, the lip pale yellow, darker in the throat, 

 with a blotch of crimson on the front lobe surrounded 

 by a narrow marginal band of white. 



Cattleya Hardyana. — This Orchid continues to reveal 

 additional charm in the richness and variety of its magnifi- 

 cent flowers. Two very handsome named varieties were 

 exhibited this week, and obtained certificates — Lavertinense 

 and Tring Park— both from the collection of Lord Roths- 

 child at Tring. The latter variety bore five enormous 

 flowers on one scape, and was gorgeous beyond de- 

 scription. 



Disa Kewense. — This is a beautiful hybrid, which is as 

 easily grown as any Orchid I know, and multiplies itself 

 by means of offsets with all the prodigality of Couch- 

 grass. Over a hundred spikes of its bright rose-pink 

 flowers have been on view in the cool Orchid-house at 

 Kew for a month or more, and they are still in perfection. 

 Many connoisseurs declare it is the best of all Disas, spe- 

 cies or hybrid ; and bearing in mind how beautiful D. 

 grandiflora is and the grand hybrid D. Veitchii, this is say- 

 ing a great deal. But D. grandiflora is not easy to grow, 

 and therefore it lacks the quality which is so marked a 

 feature in D. Kewense — namely, good nature under ordi- 

 nary frame or cool-greenhouse treatment. D. Veitchii is a 

 noble plant, and almost as free as D. Kewense. I would 

 recommend all growers of Orchids to procure both and 

 propagate them as rapidly as possible. Every little offset, 

 if potted in sandy peat and sphagnum and placed in a cool 

 moist house close to the roof glass, where they will be 

 shaded from bright sunshine and always get plenty of 

 water and air, will grow into a flowering plant in about 

 twelve months. The Kew plants are in four-inch pots, and 

 each bears a spike eighteen inches high with from ten to 

 twenty flowers, each two inches across and of a rich rose- 

 pink color, the shell-like dorsal sepal much paler and 

 spotted all over with deep rose-red. Some of the seedlings 

 have pale pink flowers, and the dorsal sepal is nearly white. 

 Two other hybrid Disas in flower at Kew are D. Langley- 

 ensis, raised both by Messrs. Veitch and at Kew from D. 

 tripetaloides and D. racemosa, with tall slender spikes of 

 rose-purple flowers intermediate in size between its two 

 parents ; the other is D. Premier, a triple hybrid, its parents 

 being D. Veitchii=(D. grandiflora x D. racemosa) and D. 

 tripetaloides. It therefore combines the characters of three 

 species. In color its flowers are almost crimson, and it is 

 good in size and form. Another year will probably prove 

 it to be a first-rate plant. 



Stanhopea Haselowiana. — The genus Stanhopea is not a 

 prime favorite with cultivators, although many of the spe- 

 cies possess extraordinary beauty as well as peculiar struc- 

 ture of flower ; probably their ephemeral character is 

 against their popularity. They are, as a rule, easily 'kept 



in health, and they rarely fail to flower annually. Among 

 the numerous species flowered this year at Kew, S. Hase- 

 lowiana is one of the most attractive. It was described by 

 Reichenbach forty years ago, but does not appear to have 

 ever been a garden Orchid until a year or two ago, when 

 it was introduced in quantity by Messrs. Linden. Its 

 flowers are as large as the largest of Stanhopeas, and their 

 color is creamy white, with numerous irregular ring-like 

 blotches of lilac-purple on every part. A figure of it will 

 be published in the Botanical Magazine. Those who care 

 for Stanhopeas should not fail to secure this one. 



Habenaria carnea. — A picture of this plant was published 

 in Garden and Forest in 1891, soon after its introduction 

 from Penang to Kew. It was imported in quantity last 

 year and is now in all good collections. A variety called 

 nivosa, with pure white flowers, was shown this week by 

 Messrs. Lewis & Co., and obtained a certificate. It is not 

 as pretty as the type, the soft rose-color of whose flowers 

 is exceptionally pleasing. 



Trichocladus grandiflorus. — This genus consists of two 

 or three species of African trees or shrubs, and is closely 

 related to the Witch-hazels (Hamamelis). T. grandiflorus 

 has been introduced into cultivation by means of seeds sent 

 to Kew from the Transvaal by Mr. E. Galpin in 1890, a 

 plant raised from them being now in flower in the tem- 

 perate house. It is ten feet high, freely branched, with 

 alternate ovate-acuminate leaves three to five inches long, 

 brown when young. The flowers are in short terminal 

 clusters on the young branches ; they are composed of a 

 short brown calyx, six strap-shaped, wavy petals an inch 

 long, white, with a crimson base and sessile stamens. Ac- 

 cording to Mr. Galpin, T. grandiflorus forms a small tree 

 fifteen to twenty feet high in the wooded ravines of 

 Moodies, near Barberton, where it flowers freely and is 

 handsome, ripening its fruits in May. It is a likely little 

 tree for subtropical regions. A figure of it will be pub- 

 lished in the Botanical Magazine. 



Selaginella viridangula. — A first-class certificate was 

 awarded to a plant of this handsome Selaginella exhibited 

 by Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons this week. Although only now 

 certificated, this species has been in cultivation in English 

 collections at least ten years. It is a native of Fiji, where 

 it forms suberect stems three feet long, with fronds a foot 

 long, clothed with small dark green leaves and elegantly 

 tasseled. It belongs to the same set as S. VVallichii and 

 S. canaliculata, which are characterized by an elongated 

 stem clothed with fronds (branches) to the base. There are 

 fine examples of it in the Kew collection. 



H/emanthus candidus. — This handsome new species is 

 likely to become a favorite greenhouse plant, as it grows 

 as freely as H. coccineus and has flowers quite as large 

 and of the purest white. It differs from H. albiflos in hav- 

 ing larger leaves, clothed with hairs on the under side and 

 on the margin ; the rachis also is distinctly hairy and the 

 bracts are small. The head is fully four inches across and 

 is composed of a dense cluster of white flowers with linear 

 segments and erect golden-tipped stamens. It is a native 

 of the Transvaal, whence it was sent to Kew a few years 

 ago, where it is now flowering superbly in a cool green- 

 house. Mr. Bull also includes it in his catalogue of new 

 plants for 1894. Along with it in the same house at Kew 

 are several big examples of the bright crimson-flowered 

 H. magnificus. There are about half a dozen species of 

 Haemanthus which are well worth the attention of bulb- 

 growers in the southern states ; they are the three already 

 named, H. Katherinas, H. carneus and H. cinnabarinus. 

 These are all capable of outdoor cultivation wherever the 

 scarlet Pelargonium is hardy, and they grow and flower as 

 freely as the best-natured of bulbous plants. 



Lindenia nivalis. — This white-flowered Rubiaceous shrub 

 from Guatemala has been in cultivation about forty years. 

 It was named in honor of Mr. John Linden, the eminent 

 Belgian horticulturist, by whom it was first discovered and 

 introduced. Several specimens of it are now flowering in 

 the stove at Kew. It has linear-lanceolate fleshy green 



