November 7, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



443 



cases several hundreds of each species. There are 112 

 very fine plants of Sequoia gigantea, which average ten 

 feet high, a beautiful group, which, when thinned, will pos- 

 sibly leave twenty-five or thirty to stand for many years 

 to come. The Redwood does not do so well, but a group 

 of twenty-four are in fair condition. The other leading 

 Conifers are Abies balsamea, Chamtecyparis Lawsoniana, 

 Cedrus Deodara and C. Libani, Picea pungens, Pseudotsuga 

 taxifolia, some Retinisporas, Thuya occidentalis, and a 

 block of 117 Italian Cypresses, most of them fifteen feet 

 high. In the present nursery are Abies Cephalonica, A. 

 Pinsapo, A. Menziesii and A. concolor, besides a number 

 of other Conifers, chiefly Californian, not yet represented 

 in the grounds. 



Some thirty species of deciduous-leaved trees are on the 

 ground, mostly in groups, but a few as single specimens, 

 and the nursery-stock covers quite an extensive range of 

 species. The seed-beds, having been started on a small 

 scale only last spring, do not yet make much showing. 

 Glass sashes and lath screens for shelter have been pro- 

 vided, and a good deal of seed-sowing will be done this 

 coming winter and spring. 



As for the mixed high forest to be established on ten or 

 twelve acres, the first experimenting necessary is with fast- 

 growing native shelter-trees. It is quite likely that more 

 land can be obtained by the state whenever it is really 

 needed, but there is a good deal to be done before the 

 present twenty-nine acres are fully utilized. 



The foreman of the station is Mr. A. B. Poland, a nursery- 

 man of experience, and the local patron or trustee is 

 Robert Pennell, the Principal of the Chico Normal School, a 

 Yale graduate, and a gentleman of high standing in edu- 

 cational work. According to the California system, each 

 station has one patron, to serve as the local bond of union 

 with the community ; the inspector forms the chief bond 

 of union with the central station, and, with the Director 

 and his staff of workers, all of whom visit the outlying 

 stations more or less, but none as often as the inspector 

 does. The system is one that admits of much extension 

 at small increased expense. It is avowedly planned with 

 a view to the future needs of California. 

 Niles, Calif. Charles Howard Shinn. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



A Notable Sale of Orchids — Record prices for Orchids 

 continue to be made. The collection formed by the late 

 Mr. Hardy, at Pickering Lodge, Manchester, has been dis- 

 posed of by auction, part of it having been sold about three 

 months ago and the remainder this week. Mr. Hardy had 

 a keen eye for a good variety, was a genuine lover of 

 Orchids, and, most important of all, was wealthy enough 

 to buy over the heads of most collectors. Thus it came 

 about that when his plants came to be sold, the competi- 

 tion for them was keen. The sale this week lasted two 

 days, and the prices of the lots, mostly single plants, 

 averaged nearly £4. Some of the highest prices were : 

 Cattleya Massaiana — a form of C. gigas — 100 guineas ; 

 C. Hardyana, 70 guineas; La?lio - Cattleya calisto- 

 glossa, 50 guineas ; L.-C. bella, 75 guineas ; a larger plant 

 of same, 150 guineas; C. Reineckiana, 75 guineas; C. 

 Schrcederi alba, 170 guineas; Laelia Tresederiana, 22 gui- 

 neas ; a small plant of a white-flowered Sobralia, 50 

 guineas. These are all fancy prices, but a still more ex- 

 travagant price was paid for a small plant, in a four-inch 

 pot, of Cypripedium insigne Sandertc, which was knocked 

 down at 260 guineas. Mr. Hardy purchased this plant only 

 a few months ago from the Messrs. Sander for too guineas. 

 These prices equal those realized by thoroughbred yearling 

 race-horses at the best of Messrs. Tattersall's sales ! Clearly, 

 the high position held in English horticulture by Orchids 

 for the last twenty years is not likely to be lowered for some 

 time at this rate. 



SorHRO-CATTLEYA lyeta is a new hybrid raised by Messrs. 

 Veitch from Sophronitis grandiflora and Laelia pumila 

 Dayana, the latter being the seed-bearer. The flowers are 

 about the same size as those of a good variety of the So- 

 phronitis, the form of the lip being intermediate between 

 the two parents ; the color of the whole flower is a pale 

 reddish pink, the front part of the lip being of a darker 

 shade and the base wdiite. It is not nearly as good inform 

 or color as the hybrid Batemaniana, raised by Messrs. 

 Veitch from the Sophronitis crossed with Cattleya inter- 

 media, and flowered by them in 1886. 



Zygopetalum cerinum, generally known under its Reich- 

 enbachian name of Pes'catorea cerina, is one of the best, as 

 it is now the most popular with cultivators of the section 

 to which it belongs. It is in flower now in a shady 

 moist position in the stove, its large cream-colored fleshy 

 flowers leaning forward singly on stalks four inches long, 

 the segments like a half-opened hand and the fleshy yellow 

 lip with its raised ring looking like a tempting bait set in the 

 middle of a five-fingered trap. This is the kind of Orchid 

 flower that the uninitiated stand in front of and wonder 

 why such a flower was made. A lady said it appeared to 

 be laughing heartily, while a boy with her said he thought 

 it was putting its tongue out at her. The species has been 

 in cultivation since 1863. All the plants of this section, that 

 is, the Pescatoreas, Bolleas and Warsecwiczellas, like shade 

 and moisture. 



Stauropsis Philippinensis — A plant of this interesting 

 Orchid was awarded a botanical certificate last week by 

 the Royal Horticultural Society. It is the type of the genus 

 which was created by Reichenbach in i860, Lindley hav- 

 ing described it fifteen years before as a Trichoglottis. 

 There are some eight species known, all of them Malayan, 

 the best known in gardens being S. gigantea (Vanda) and 

 S. lissochiloides (Vanda Batemani). Compared with these 

 two, S. Philippinensis has small flowers ; they are a little 

 over an inch in diameter, brown-purple in color, with pale 

 margins, and they are borne singly in the axils of the leaves. 

 The habit of the plant is that of Vanda ccerulea. It is purely 

 of botanical interest. 



Stenoglottis longifolia. — With the exception of Masde- 

 vallia pulvinaris, a spike of which lasted in flower eighteen 

 months at Kew, I know no Orchid that continues in 

 flower so long as this Stenoglottis, which pushed up its 

 spikes in the spring of this year, developed its first flowers 

 at the end of July, and is still developing them. It is one 

 of the most useful of the terrestrial Orchids introduced from 

 south Africa, as it is easily kept in health under the same 

 treatment as suits Odontoglossums, and it never fails to 

 flower. The Kew specimen has five spikes, each now 

 nearly two feet high, and the flowers are bright blue-purple, 

 with reddish spots. _ It continued in flower over three 

 months last year. 



AngryECUji Kotschyi. — Plants of this rare species were 

 sent to Kew from the Kilimanjaro district, in eastern trop- 

 ical Africa, two years ago, and one of them is now in 

 flower. It has scarcely any stem, obovate-oblong, bilobed 

 leaves four to seven inches long, and a horizontal raceme 

 a foot long bearing seven pure white flowers, which are 

 nearly two inches across, the two lateral petals set back 

 like a pair of wings ; the hanging spur, which is eight 

 inches long, is spirally twisted, like a tendril, the apex 

 being flattened out as if hammered. What can be the 

 meaning of this twist in an appendage the use of which is 

 supposed to be to hold nectar for the insects whose visits 

 are essential to fertilization ? There is nectar enough 

 secreted in the spur, and delicious to the taste it is, but no 

 insect could possibly get to it from above, however long 

 and flexible his proboscis might be. .The species is rare 

 in cultivation, but it probably could be obtained in quan- 

 tity from the region of the African Lakes Settlements. 



Megaclinium triste.- — All the species of this African 

 genus are peculiar in the form of their inflorescence, and 

 M. triste is especially so. it is now flowering for the first 

 time in the Kew collection, and a botanical description by 



