1 62 



Garden and Forest 



[Number 163. 



will be too short for them to get their growth in. I have read 

 somewhere that an Oak grew from an acorn in this common- 

 wealth of Massachusetts, forty feet in fourteen years, but if 

 these hill-side acorns achieve fourteen feet in forty years we 

 shall feel we have not lived in vain. 



" What do you do to make trees grow ? " I asked an Eng- 

 lishman who was coaxing along a rebellious Butternut to some 

 show of vigor. 



"Oh!" said he, "I just talks to 'em, and tells 'em to grow, 

 and they grow." 



Mindful of this advice, I do not fail to exhort these recreant 

 acorns, but no teacher of a primary school ever had a worse 

 time in getting a shoot out of a young idea, than do I out of 

 this infant class of refractory nuts and seeds. 



Hingham, Mass. Mary C. Robbins. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Phyllanthus pallidifolius. 



THIS plant, which is a native of Java, is more often 

 met with in gardens, under the name of Reidia glau- 

 cescens. It belongs to a vast genus of the Euphorbia 

 family, with four or five hundred species scattered over the 

 warmer parts of the world's surface. The name is formed 

 from two Greek words, meaning leaf and flower, and was 

 given to these plants because, in some of the species, the 

 flowers are produced from the edges of what appears to be 

 the midrib of a long compound leaf, but which is really a 

 branch, the organs which look like leaflets being true 

 leaves. 



Phyllanthus pallidifolius will not, perhaps, interest people 

 who find little to admire in plants which do not prpduce 

 large and showy flowers. It is a small shrub of graceful 

 habit, with bright fresh green foliage, pale and glaucous on ' 

 the under surface, as beautiful as that of many Ferns. It 

 is, for this reason, well worth cultivating in collections 

 of stove-plants. The flowers, which are graceful and 

 pretty, are produced during the summer and autumn in 

 great profusion, and hang from the branches on long, 

 slender, bright red pedicels, the males solitary or a few 

 together from the axils of the lower leaves, the females 

 solitary toward the ends of the branches. They have no 

 petals, but the sepals are yellow, with fringed margins, 

 and are marked with bright red at the base. This plant, 

 like the' others of the genus which' are occasionally culti- 

 vated, flourishes in a compost of sandy loam, mixed with 

 a little fibrous peat, and requires thorough and careful 

 drainage. It may be easily increased by cuttings struck 

 with bottom heat. 



Our illustration on page 161 is from a photograph of a 

 plant in the collection of Mr. J. L. Gardner, of Brookline, 

 Massachusetts. 



New Orchids. 



Cochlioda Noezliana, Rolfe. — This is a charming novelty, 

 of very graceful habit, bearing a branching panicle of me- 

 dium-sized, orange-scarlet flowers with a yellow disc. It was 

 introduced by Messrs. Linden, L'Horticulture Internationale, 

 Pare Leopold, Brussels. A plant was exhibited at a meeting of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society on November nth last, when 

 it was awarded a botanical certificate. It is dedicated to Mon- 

 sieur John Noezli, its discoverer. According to an advertise- 

 ment in the Gardeners' Chronicle for February 28th last (page 

 258), the species is a native of the Andes of Peru, growing at 

 an elevation of 9,000 feet above sea-level. It belongs to a 

 small genus closely allied to Odontoglossum, under which 

 genus and Mesospinidium the species are generally known in 

 gardens. — Lindenia, vol. vi., p. 55, t. 266. (English edition, 

 vol. i., p. 9, t. 266.) 



Peristeria aspersa, Rolfe. — An interesting species, allied 

 to P. Rossiana, Rchb. f. It was discovered by Monsieur Bun- 

 geroth on the declivities of the Sierra de Marawaca, one of the 

 most elevated mountains of the Parama chain, in Venezuela. 

 This collector sent specimens to Messrs. Linden, L'Horticul- 

 ture Internationale, Pare Leopold, Brussels, in whose collec- 

 tion it flowered last year. The flowers are borne in short 

 racemes of about ten each, the color light brownish yellow, 

 densely spotted or speckled with innumerable small spots of 

 reddish brown, and the lip of a darker color, bordering on 



crimson. — Lindenia, vol. vi., p. 57, t. 267. (English edition, 

 vol. i., p. 11, t. 267.) 



Schomburgkia Sanderiana, Rolfe. — This is a very hand- 

 some Schomburgkia, introduced by Messrs. F. Sander & Co., 

 of St. Albans, about three years ago, and now flowering for the 

 first time. It is a plant of medium size with hollow pseudo- 

 bulbs, very rigid leaves, and a lax, somewhat branched, pani- 

 cle of rosy carmine flowers. . It is allied to 6". Humboldtii, 

 Rchb. f., which, however, is easily distinguished by its much 

 more elevated and acute keels, and other differences. — Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle, February 14th, p. 202. 



Cypripedium x Creon, Veitch. — A new hybrid raised be- 

 tween C. x CEnanthum superbum and C. X Harrisianum su- 

 perbum, the latter being the seed-bearer. It is about interme- 

 diate in character ; the dorsal sepal is dark red-brown, with a 

 white margin, and the petals and lip pale red-brown. It was 

 awarded a first-class certificate by the Royal Horticultural So- 

 ciety on February 10th last. It is curious to note that both the 

 parents are themselves hybrids. — Gardeners' Chronicle, Feb- 

 ruary 14th, pp. 214, 215. 



Bulbophyllum inflatum, Rolfe. — This is a very remarkable 

 little Bulbophyllum, which was received from Sierra Leone in 

 1887, and flowered in the Kew collection in 1889, and again in 

 the following year. It is closely allied to B. comatum, Lindl., a 

 species from the same country, not known in cultivation, 

 though quite distinct in its inflorescence. The racemes are 

 like pendulous, egg-shaped masses of yellowish green, hairy 

 flowers. This peculiarity is owing to the shape of the rhachis, 

 which is swollen in a remarkable manner, forming a solid, 

 fleshy, ellipsoidal body, an inch long by half as broad, on 

 which the flowers are densely arranged. The hairs on the 

 flowers are remarkable in their origin. Each sepal is strongly 

 keeled, and it is these keels, particularly those of the lateral 

 sepals, which break up into long hairs, while the margins of 

 the sepals are almost or quite smooth. The name is given in 

 allusion to the peculiar swollen rhachis. It is a very free- 

 flowering little species. — Gardeners' Chronicle, February 21st, 



P- 234. 



Kew. 



R. A. Rolfe. 



Cultural Department. 



Some American Oxalis. 



T BEGAN many years ago to collect bulbous and tuberous 

 •1 plants, and the genus Oxalis has been a favorite of mine 

 from the beginning, but so incorrect are the names that are sup- 

 plied with the bulbs that the trouble of identifying the species 

 has been almost equal to the pleasure of possession. Itwould 

 seem that the names of South African kinds, and of Mexican 

 kinds, however confused among themselves, might be kept 

 distinct, but they are not, for the only firm (an Italian one) 

 which now has the names 0. Jacquiniana and 0. vespertilionis 

 on its lists, sends two Cape species to those who order those 

 kinds, though both are Mexican. 



About forty sorts are indigenous to Mexico and Central 

 America, including 0. stricta, which is found the world over, 

 and of these not more than five or six are obtainable. One 

 more of the group, 0. Drummondi, I am glad to find offered 

 this spring by Gillett and Horsford, from whom we always 

 expect something interesting. 



The bulbs of the American section are not hard and solid 

 like those of the Cape, but of a much looser structure, and 

 are soft enough to yield readily to the pressure of the finger 

 and thumb. All the kinds are summer-blooming. 0. lasi- 

 andra has been in cultivation in this country longer than any 

 other Mexican sort, having been introduced many years ago 

 by James Vick, who saw it used as an edging in European 

 gardens. Its flower and leaf stalks reach a height of twelve or 

 fourteen inches, and, as their growth is not so tufted as in the 

 other kinds, they look somewhat weedy before the season is 

 over, the tall stalks, with the remains of the early blossoms, 

 lying out in all directions. Nevertheless the plant is well 

 worth growing. Its leaves are composed of from five to nine 

 long, narrow, dark-green leaflets, radiating like the leaves of 

 Cyperus alter nifolius, altogether unlike those of any other 

 Oxalis I have ever seen. The flowers are bright rosy crimson, 

 of medium size, and produced in clusters. 



Oxalis Deppei is a very fine species. Its foliage is light 

 green, of the familiar clover-leaf form, each leaflet being 

 marked with a broad chocolate-colored mark like the letter 

 V. The flowers are light crimson, and are produced all 

 summer. The foliage of this and the following kinds is very 

 dense and tufted, and, of itself, no slight ornament to a 

 garden. 



