i6 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 151. 



Reynosia is referred by Baillon ("Hist. PL," vi., 82) to 

 Condalia. It differs, however, from the plants of that 

 genus in the thinner and much less prominent disk of the 

 flower, in the thinner wall of the stone of the fruit, 

 and in its longer radicle and ruminate albumen ; and 

 in habit and in its unarmed branches. Baron Eggers, in 

 his characters of the genus Reynosia ("Vidensk. Medd. 

 fra nat. For. Kiobenh.," 1877, 3), describes the flower with 

 five (o ?) cucullate, unguiculate petals inserted on the mar- 

 gin of the disk between the lobes of the calyx. I have been 

 able to examine the flowers of R. laiifolia only ; these show 

 no trace of petals, nor do we find the margins of the coty- 

 ledons recurved and subcontorted as described by Eggers. 

 The stigma is as often three as two-lobed. 



43. Condalia ferrea, Griseb. This common West Indian 

 and Florida tree has already been referred to no less than 

 six distinct genera, in none of which it seems properly to 

 belong. The last reference, that of Grisebach, to Condalia, 

 made probably because, like Condalia, it has no petals, cer- 

 tainly cannot be sustained. The completely two-celled 

 ovary, exalbuminous seed filled with the thick and fleshy 

 cotyledons, remove it from that genus, which it does not 

 resemble in its unarmed branches, and large opposite, per- 

 sistent leaves. The distribution of this plant is quite dif- 

 ferent, too, from that of Condalia, which is not represented 

 in the West India flora. The structure of the seed is that 

 of Zizyphus, which is sometimes destitute of petals, but 

 the pinnate venation of the leaves and the unarmed 

 branches make it undesirable to unite it with that genus. 

 Nothing remains, then, but to consider our plant the type of 

 a new genus, or to refer it to the Brazilian genus Rhamni- 

 dium, enlarged by the addition of a section with apetalous 

 flowers to receive it. This, on the whole, seems to be the 

 best disposition to make of our plant, Reisseck's genus 

 (Martius, Fl. Braz., xi., 194) having been already extended 

 by Grisebach (Cat. PI. Cub., 32) to include a group of West 

 Indian shrubs very similar to our plant in habit and inflor- 

 escence and in the structure of the fruit, although, unlike 

 it, provided with petals. The leaves of all the West Indian 

 species are coriaceous and persistent without the prominent 

 veins which characterize the Brazilian species, while the 

 leaves of these last are apparently deciduous, at least in 

 the case of two of the species. The walls of the stone of 

 our plant are thick and crustaceous, but not more so than 

 in one or two of the West Indian species now referred to 

 this genus ; and the branchlets are thickly beset with 

 lenticels, a character common to all the species of the 

 genus. 



The oldest name of our plant is that of Vahl (Symb., iii. 

 41, t. 58), who published an excellent figure of it ; so that, 

 if it is referred to Rhamnidium, it becomes Rhamnidium 

 ferreum. 



Rhamnidium was placed by Bentham & Hooker in the 

 " Genera Plantarum " in the tribe RhamncE, in which the 

 fruit is described as dry or drupaceous, with three (rarely 

 two to four) indehiscent or two-valved cocci or stones. The 

 fruit of Rhamnidium is, however, a true drupe, with a single 

 one to two-celled stone, and seems rather to belong with 

 the ZizyphaB and to follow naturally after Condalia. 



C. S. Sargent. 



New or Little Known Plants. 

 A Hybrid Calanthe. 



IN the report of the Boston Chrysanthemum Show, on page 

 566 of the issue of Garden and Forest for November 

 19th, 1890, appears a reference to a new seedling Calanthe. 

 The specimen in question was exhibited by Mr. Richard Gard- 

 ner, gardener to Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, of Newport, Rhode 

 Island, and it was awarded the silver medal of the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society. The seedling, as stated in the 

 report, is the result of fertilizing C. vestita rubro-oculata with 

 the pollen of C. Veitchii. It was raised in the garden of Mr. 

 Pierre Lorillard, at Jobstown, New Jersey, by Mr. Gardner in 

 1882. The pseudo-bulbs, in the development of which it is 

 extremely prolific, are larger than in either parent, very broad 



at the base, tapering gradually to a small apex, and have never 

 shown the jointed formation characteristic of C. Veitchii. The 

 plant differs from C. Turneri, a species from Java to which it 

 has been compared in this latter particular, and is superior to 

 it in other respects. With the exception of being a trifle wider, 

 the leaves bear a strong resemblance to those of the male 

 parent. The racemes are shorter than in C. Veitchii, not so erect, 

 and yet with a less conspicuous arch than the inflorescence 

 of the seed parent, and they are produced more freely than in 

 either parent. The larger flowers, with a more even spread 

 to the parts, are arranged as compactly as those of C. Veitchii, 

 the color being of a purer white than in C. vestita rubro-ocu- 

 lata, with a larger, though less dense, blotch of a reddish tint 

 at the base of the lip. The illustration on page 17 is repro- 

 duced from a photograph of the raceme of the plant exhibited 

 in Boston. 



Some time ago a representative of the Messrs. Sander & Co. 

 purchased a portion of the stock of this Calanthe, and sent a 

 plant of it to Dr. Reichenbach with the suggestion that it be 

 named after Mr. Eyerman, of Easton, Pennsylvania, well known 

 as a collector of choice Orchids ; but Dr. Reichenbach died 

 before he had published any description or name of the plant, 

 which is now locked up in his herbarium. Specimens have 

 been sold at auction, however, under the provisional name of 

 C. Eyermanii. 



Mr. Gardner has another promising hybrid Calanthe which 

 is also the result of crossing C. Veitchii and C. vestita luteo- 

 oculata, but in this instance the latter is the male parent. Here 

 the flowers resemble those of the pollen parent in color, but 

 the white is the purest I have yet seen in a Calanthe, and the 

 yellow of the eye is beautifully delicate. In all other respects 

 this plant resembles C. Veitchii. But a correct estimate of its 

 good qualities can hardly be given yet, for, although raised at 

 the same time and place as the other hybrid, the plant, having 

 passed through many vicissitudes, is still small. 



There is in existence another hybrid Calanthe, C. Sedeni, 

 which claims the same parents as the so-called C. Eyermanii. 

 It was raised by Mr. Seden at the well known London estab- 

 lishment of Messrs. James Veitch & Sons. In color the flow- 

 ers resemble those of C. Veitchii, and they show an apprecia- 

 ble improvement in size. I am not aware, however, which is 

 the pollen parent in this case, but, in view of Mr. Gardner's 

 experiences/it is probable that C. Veitchii was the seed-bearer. 

 Perhaps the experts of the Veitchian establishment can throw 

 some light on the matter. 



Cambridge, Mass. M. B. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Cattleya Warocqueana.— I have received the following 

 note from M. Lucien Linden, Director of L 'Horticulture Inter- 

 nationale, Brussels : 



" I read in the Garden and Forest for November 26th a 

 note by you on Cattleya Warocqueana in which that new 

 introduction is referred to C. Gaskelliana. I have too often 

 had occasion to recognize the fairness and courtesy of your 

 criticism in that journal to think of complaining of your judg- 

 ment with respect to this Cattleya, but I would like to call your 

 attention to the fact that some of the best judges have recog- 

 nized in C. Warocqueana the C. labiata atitumnalis, a view 

 confirmed by the time of its flowering and the form of its 

 flowers ; also that the numerous varieties of C. Warocqueana 

 that have flowered with lis, of which some have been exhib- 

 ited in London, are much superior to the best forms of C. Gas- 

 kelliana. I can also assure you that C. Warocqueana comes 

 from a locality very far removed from the habitat of C. Gas- 

 kelliana." 



I have not seen among the plants of C. Warocqueana ex- 

 hibited by M. Linden at the meetings of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society any that could be considered identical with the 

 autumn flowering C. labiata, now called C. labiata vera. The 

 opinion that such might be the case was discussed by the 

 Orchid connoisseurs at the meetings of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society, but obtained no support. By the side of M. 

 Linden's C. Warocqueana were exhibited plants of C. Gaskell- 

 iana (which, of course, is also a variety of C. labiata), and the 

 opinion of those qualified to speak on this subject was as I 

 expressed it in the note in Garden and Forest to which M. 

 Linden refers — namely, that whilst there was no clear line of 

 separation between C. Warocqueana and C. Gaskelliana, the 

 plants of the former shown by M. Linden were better forms 

 than any yet seen of C. Gaskelliana as introduced seven years 

 ago. As already stated by me, some of M. Linden's flowers 



