9 o 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 15; 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Hybrid Calanthes. — It is thirty-five years now since Mr. 

 Dominy, at that time manager to Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons at 

 their Exeter nursery, raised the invaluable Calanthe Veitchii 

 by crossing C: vestita with C. rosea. At that time the latter 

 was known as a species of Lematodes, and the fact that this 

 was the first supposed bigeneric cross naturally caused some 

 excitement among botanists. Mr. Bentham, however, de- 

 prived the hybrid of some of its interest when, in 1881, he 

 wrote : " The facility with which Lematodes rosea can be made 

 to hybridize with Calanthe vestita has been given as an in- 

 stance of ready hybridization between two distinct genera ; 

 but the fact appears to be that L. rosea itself has all the char- 

 acters of Calanthe, and is, indeed, a species very nearly allied 

 in every respect to C. vestita." As a garden Orchid, however, 

 C. Veitchii remains among the very finest hybrids ever raised, 

 superior as a decorative plant to both its parents, and at least 

 the equal of any other seedling Calanthe of garden origin. Well 

 grown, it produces many flowered scapes a yard long, perfect 

 as regards elegance and the arrangement of the flowers, which 

 in their turn are pretty in form and colored a bright rose. 

 Then there are the varieties : Alba, with pure white flowers, 

 and Versicolor, which is peculiar in having white, rose and 

 variegated flowers on the same spike. A remarkable feature 

 in this hybrid is its being at least as dark in color as C. rosea, 

 although its other parent is almost wholly white. 



Twenty years elapsed between the birth of C. Veitchii and 

 the next hybrid Calanthe, also a Veitchian production, namely, 

 C. Sedeni, the progeny of C. Veitchii crossed with the red-eyed 

 variety of C. vestita. This is a beautiful plant, the flowers being 

 rose-carmine, almost crimson, and of good size and substance. 

 The unexpected often happens in hybridizing experiments, as 

 is shown by the form and color of the hybrid figured in Gar- 

 den and Forest (p. 17) under the name of C. Eyermanii. By 

 simply reversing the parentage Mr. Gardner obtained a cross 

 with flowers half as large again as C. Veitchii and "whiter 

 even that C. vestita " — if that is possible. Hybrids, crosses, 

 seedlings of Calanthes, have been produced in abundance in 

 English collections recently, Sir Trevor Lawrence and Mr. 

 Norman Cookson having raised some exceedingly pretty- 

 flowered ones. Many of these have not been named. They 

 have an interest for horticulturists, as they reveal a disposition 

 in C. vestita and its near allies to cross and sport to almost 

 any extent ; and Calanthes of this section are so exceptionally 

 useful that we cannot well have too many of them. 



According to Messrs. Veitch, the raising of hybrid Calanthes 

 is comparatively quick work. The capsule usually ripens in 

 three or four months, and the seed takes from two to three 

 months more to germinate ; the seedlings, under favorable 

 circumstances, will flower in the third or fourth year. The 

 multiplication of Calanthes is equally rapid by means of divid- 

 ing the pseudo-bulbs. In short, Calanthes have proved them- 

 selves in every way adapted for the every-day greenhouse, and 

 as deserving of general cultivation as the most popular of 

 winter-flowering plants. They have been grown at Kew some 

 years for the decoration of the conservatory. 



The section of this genus represented by C. veratrifolia 

 differs widely from the C. vestita group, so widely, indeed, as 

 to appear to have nothing in common with it. But among them 

 there are some beautiful-flowered species which have the 

 commendable quality of thriving in a greenhouse temperature 

 all the year round. They enjoy copious watering, they are 

 evergreen, and their tall spikes of flowers are a durable attrac- 

 tion at various times of the year. C. Masicca is in flower now. 

 It has a spike two feet long, and flowers one and a half inches 

 across, colored soft lavender-purple. C. veratrifolia will 

 shortly produce its tall scapes of pure white flowers ; C. Natal- 

 etisis, of similar habit to the last and colored lilac, with a red- 

 dish lip, also flowers in spring. The only hybrid in this sec- 

 tion is C. Dominy i, raised from C. Masuca and C. furcata 

 about the same time as C. Veitchii, and by the same operator. 



The genus Phajus has proved so near an ally to Calanthe as 

 to hybridize with it. P. irrovatus is the offspring oiP. grandi- 

 folitis and C. vestita, while in P. Sedeni we have a hybrid be- 

 tween P. grandifolius and C. Veitchii. 



Two new Grapes have lately been brought into notice, and 

 are likely to become valuable acquisitions as high-class varie- 

 ties for indoor cultivation. They were raised by Mr. Myles, 

 gardener to Lady Hutt, Appley Towers, Ryde, Isle of Wight, 

 who obtained them by fertilizing six flowers of Gros Colmar 

 with pollen from Meredith's Alicante. One is named Lady 

 Hutt, and may be called a white skinned Gros Colmar, but 



better in flavor than that popular variety. The second is called 

 Appley Towers, and has large round berries, black, thin- 

 skinned, perfect in flesh and flavor, and an excellent keeper. 

 It is somewhat remarkable that two first-class varieties should 

 be the outcome of so small an experiment, and that they should 

 differ considerably, not only in color, but in form and flavor, 

 from each other. 



Fruit-trees in Ornamental Gardening. — A suggestion 

 that many fruit-trees deserve to be planted for decorative 

 effect in shrubberies and on lawns appears in this week's 

 number of the Gardeners' Magazine. Although not new, the 

 idea is one that deserves attention. We are apt to overlook 

 the ornamental character in things otherwise useful. Double 

 Cherries, Almonds, Flowering Currants and the species of 

 Primus are not uncommon features of good shrubberies or as 

 lawn specimens. But why stick at the flowers ? There are 

 few more beautiful pictures than a tree well-laden with richly 

 colored apples, or cherries, or peaches, or plums, or pears. 

 Nor have we anything among berried bushes so effective as 

 the Red, Black and White Currants, while many varieties of 

 Gooseberries are not without considerable claims as decora- 

 tive objects. It is a fact that if all these trees produced inedi- 

 ble fruit they would be universal favorites for planting for 

 effect. In an old garden where I worked when a boy the old 

 kitchen-garden was included with the lawn and shrubberies, 

 but some favorite old Apple-trees were left as lawn speci- 

 mens. They were beautiful when in flower, equally beautiful 

 when laden with rosy fruit, and last, but not least, they con- 

 tributed considerably to the requirements of the kitchen. 



Amorphophallus campanulatus. — Some people appear to 

 have confused this plant with A. Titanwn, if one may be 

 guided by an advertisement which has lately been circulated 

 in England and America. The first-named is a well-known 

 Indian Aroid with tubers from six inches to a foot in diameter ; 

 leaves four feet high, and vasiform flowers a foot in diameter, 

 green and vinous purple in color, with a large chocolate- 

 colored spadix, and emitting when fresh a disgusting odor. 

 The plant is strictly tropical, will not thrive in cultivation ex- 

 cept when grown in a hot, moist stove, and is not easily flow- 

 ered. When in flower it is a curiosity, which finds little 

 admiration, its odor as well as its dull colors being all against 

 it. Of course it is widely different in stature, form of flower 

 and interest from the Sumatran A. Titanum, of which the only 

 plant known in cultivation is that which flowered at Kew in 

 1889. There is an Amorphophallus which comes from north- 

 ern China, and is almost hardy in England — namely, A. Rivieri, 

 which is sometimes used here as a bedding plant on account 

 of its ornamental leaves — but it rarely flowers, and when it 

 does it differs considerably from A. Titanum and A. campanu- 

 latus. No true Amorphophallus is found in Africa. 



London. W. WatSOtl. 



Cultural Department. 



Notes from the Harvard Botanic Garden. 



Phyllanthus nivosus. — There are but few members of the 

 genus Phyllanthus worthy of cultivation for decorative pur- 

 poses. P. nivosus, however, is one of the most notable excep- 

 tions. It is a native of the South Sea Islands, and was intro- 

 duced in 1873. The plant is a deciduous shrub of free-branch- 

 ing habit, with the alternate, ovate leaves two inches long and 

 closely arranged on the branches. The flowers are incon- 

 spicuous ; but their lack of showiness is made good in the 

 foliage, which, under certain conditions, develops a beautiful 

 variegation of green and white. As the leaves become old 

 they turn to a pale green color, and they then produce a nice 

 effect with the long branches of younger ones, in many of which 

 the green is almost entirely absent. Specimens of this plant 

 should be kept somewhat closely root-bound and freely ex- 

 posed to the light, in order to secure the most pleasing com- 

 binations of color. A stove temperature is essential to their 

 luxuriant growth, and a mixture in equal parts of loam, peat 

 and sand should be used in potting. Propagation is effected 

 by planting cuttings, prepared from firm material, in sandy 

 soil and placing them in bottom heat. The plants grow quickly, 

 and soon form handsome specimens under the treatment gen- 

 erally accorded stove plants. 



Senecio Petasites. — This would be found a most valuable 

 plant for those who have large conservatories to be kept at- 

 tractive during winter. It is a native of Mexico, and has been 

 known in English gardens since 1812, when it was introduced 

 by means of seeds, and first flowered there during the latter 

 part of the same year in the gardens of a Mr. A. B. Lambert. 

 Then, and for many years afterward, it was known only as 



