18 



out into panicles. The individual flowers are of large size, and finely crisped rl 

 toothed ; the sepals and petals are white, heavily spotted and blotched with pale sienn 

 brown, and the lip is white, having a large blotch of the same colour on the anteri 

 part, and numerous smaller spots towards the base, where the yellow disk 

 prominent, and adds life to the colouring. This plant produced its blossoms in 

 March, and continued for six weeks in beauty. Like all the forms of 0. Alexandm 

 it begins to show its flower spikes as soon as the growth is completed. 



This variety requires the same course of treatment as that given to this class 

 of plants generally, and which is c6mmonly designated and understood 



as 



house " treatment 



o 



Calanthe Veitchii and C. vestita. — We are always ready to record, for the 



information of our subscribers, anything that strikes us as likely to be interest: 



to them, whether the subject be an old plant or one of more recent introducti 



Recently, when visiting the garden of H. Gaskell, Esq.. of Woolton, Liverpool, and 



inspecting his collection of Orchids, we were much pleased with the sight of a 



house full of Calanthes. On entering the house, the charming appearance of their 



lovely and graceful flower spikes was almost beyond conception. The spikes wore 



more than five hundred in number, overhanging each other, and so arranged that 



their rosy and white flowers were intermixed, thus producing an efi"ect which was 



indee<l most beautiful. In the, case of C. Veitchii many of the spikes were over 



four feet in length, and those of C. vestita were equally good. It is, indeed, difficult 



to describe or even to form any idea of the lovely eff'ect they produced; they must 



have been seen to be fully appreciated. These Calanthes are invaluable as 



decorative plants, blooming as they do during the dull winter months— a time 



when the presence of flowers, especially if of cheerful colours, to enliven the too 



often dreary sunless periods, is doubly welcome. 



There were, besides, many Lcelias, Cattleyas, Odontoglossums, Phalcenopsis, and 

 a host of other good Orchids, many of them in their full blaze of beauty, and 

 many others with their spikes showing for succession. Mr. Gaskell's collectiou is 

 making rapid strides in respect to cultivation, a state of things we are at all times 



pleased to see and to commend, inasmuch as it always gives one pleasure to see either 



Orchids or other plants well cared for, as they are at this place.— B. S. W 



• 



