July i, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



305 



material for making the best kind of paper. The genus con- 

 tains this species only, and differs from Daphne only in its 

 longer style and stigma. It makes, in Europe, a handsome 

 greenhouse plant when well grown, and formerly was much 

 more frequently cultivated than at present ; Colchicum Sib- 

 thorpii (t. 7181) ; this is said by Mr. Baker to be the finest of 

 all the Colchicums in cultivation. It is a native of the moun- 

 tains of Greece and of Macedonia, ascending to an elevation 

 of 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. In its distinctly tes- 

 sellated flowers it agrees with C. variegatum and C. Parkinsoni, 

 although the segments of the perianth are much broader than 

 in those species, and the leaves, like those of C. autumnale, are 

 suberect, obtuse, and not at all undulate. It has only been 

 introduced lately into cultivation, the corms cultivated at Kew 

 having been sent to the Royal Gardens by Max Leichtlin in 

 August, 1890; the flowers are produced in the autumn and 

 are bright mauve-lilac, and are borne in from one to five- 

 flowered clusters. The perianth has a stout white tube from 

 three to four inches long, with a campanulate limb, oblong- 

 obtuse segments two inches long and distinctly tessellated on 

 the inner surface. The stamens, which are about half the 

 length of the perianth-segments, bear large linear yellow 

 anthers. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Orchids. — Disa Veitchii is the result of crossing D. grandi- 

 flora with D. racemosa, and is another addition to the many 

 first-rate hybrid Orchids raised in the establishment of Messrs. 

 J. Veitch & Sons, Chelsea. The late Dr. Moore proved at 

 Glasnevin, many years ago, that D. grandiflora could be 

 propagated from seeds almost as easily as Gloxinias ; Messrs. 

 James Backhouse & Sons, of York, also have raised large 

 quantities of this plant from seeds. The habit and general 

 characters of the comparatively new D. racemosa are very 

 similar to those of D. grandiflora, while its behavior under 

 cultivation, so far, has been uniformly good, which is more 

 than can be said of the Table Mountain plant. A cross be- 

 tween these two, therefore, was almost certain to prove good 

 in a garden sense, and Messrs. Veitch lost no time in putting- 

 it to the test, for D. racemosa did not flower in England until 

 1888, when it bloomed at Kew, yet a plant of the hybrid was 

 exhibited in bloom at the last meeting of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society, although only twenty-one months old. No 

 doubt, the hybrid will be much finer even in a year or two than 

 now, but it is a really first-rate Orchid as it is. In habit and 

 foliage it resembles both its parents, but the flower is like that 

 of D. grandiflora in size and form, while in its bright rose- 

 mauve color it resembles D. racemosa. The chief merit of 

 this plant lies in its being within the reach of every one, either 

 by repeating the cross or by means of offsets, which are pro- 

 duced freely by both parents, and, no doubt, will be by the hybrid. 

 D. racemosa is now represented by about twenty spikes of 

 flowers in the Kew collection. As I have said several times 

 already, it is a beautiful Orchid, and as easy to cultivate as 

 Odontoglossum crispum, D. tripetaloides is also in bloom 

 here ; it has racemes a foot long, each bearing about a dozen 

 white flowers spotted with rose. 



Lalia Arnoldiana. — Messrs. Sander& Co. have just flowered 

 a most beautiful hybrid, which they have named in compli- 

 ment to Mr. Hicks Arnold, of New York. It is the result of 

 crossing L. purpurata with Cattleya labiata. The plant has 

 the general appearance of L. purpurata, and so has the flower, 

 but it differs in having a large labellum, fully two inches across 

 the front lobe, which is colored deep amethyst-purple, dark- 

 ening to maroon in the throat, where there are a few veins of a 

 golden-yellow color. The sepals and petals are of good sub- 

 stance, and colored a soft rosy mauve. 



Sobralia macrantha Keinas'tiana is a pure white form of the 

 well-known S. macrantha. It was shown in flower by Barbn 

 Schrceder, and obtained a first-class certificate. It is the best 

 of all the colorless varieties of S. macrantha hitherto seen, 

 the sepals and petals being snow-white, the only color being a 

 blotch of golden yellow in the throat of the labellum. 



Hamanthus Katherina? is a very handsome stove bulb 

 which is so easy to manage, and blooms so freely, that it de- 

 serves a place in every collection of stove plants. It was in- 

 troduced to Kew in 1877, and figured in the Botanical Maga- 

 zine, t. 6778. Since then it has seeded in various gardens, and 

 some of the seedling varieties are much superior to the type. 

 The best is known as Alice Barr, or Superbus, and has very 

 large heads of bloom, one which I saw from Mr. Gumbleton 



last year being nine inches in diameter and colored rich scarlet. 

 This species does not require to be dried off at any time. 



Bauhinia Galpini. — This is a promising garden-plant, and, 

 therefore, an exception to almost every one of the many 

 species of Bauhinia which have been tried in the garden at 

 one time and another. It has lately been introduced to Kew 

 by means of seeds sent from the Transvaal by Mr. E. Galpin, 

 who describes it as "a handsome bush, about five feet high, 

 with large red flowers, and certainly the plant of plants so far 

 as the De Kaap vegetation is concerned." Mr. Galpin sent 

 flowering specimens which bore out his statements with re- 

 gard to the beauty of this species, and the behavior of the 

 plants in cultivation at Kew is all that could be desired, as they 

 grow freely and form shapely elegant pot-shrubs. As yet they. 

 are too young to flower, but Mr. N. E. Brown, of the Kew 

 Herbarium, has drawn up a description of the plant, which is 

 published this week in the Gardeners' Chronicle. The leaves 

 are of the usual two-lobed form which characterizes all the 

 plants of this genus, and the flowers are in axillary racemes 

 which, in wild specimens, are extremely abundant upon every 

 branch. Being found at an elevation of about 2,000 feet, or 

 not far from the home of Clematis Stanleyi, this species is cer- 

 tain to thrive in a geenhouse. Like all Bauhinias, it revels in 

 sunshine and a moderate allowance of moisture. We have 

 plants a yard high which promise well for flowering shortly. 



The only other species of Bauhinia which have proved worthy 

 the notice of horticulturists are B. corymbosa, from China, and 



B. Natalensis. There are over a score species in cultivation 

 at Kew, and while some, such as B. Vahlii, are handsome 

 foliage plants, deserving a place in large stoves, they rarely 

 produce blossoms, notwithstanding their well-known free- 

 flowering behavior in a wild state. 



Celmisia spectabilis. — The Celmisias are peculiar to New 

 Zealand, where they grow at high elevations, and are known 

 as Mountain Daisies. Twenty-five species have been de- 

 scribed, and almost every one is of such a character as would 

 find favor in the garden. Unfortunately, however, they are 

 exceedingly difficult to introduce, either by means of plants or 

 seeds, and, notwithstanding the repeated efforts made by the 

 Kew authorities and others, they remain still almost unknown 

 in English horticulture. We possess two, however, namely, 



C. Lindsayi, which has been at Kew ten years, and of which a 

 figure was published in the Botanical Magazine, t. 7134, and 

 B. spectabilis, of which Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons exhibited a 

 small plant in flower at the last meeting of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, where it obtained a first-class certifi- 

 cate. This plant was six inches high, the leaves lanceolate, 

 rather rigid, thickly felted beneath with silky wool and silvery 

 upon the surface. The flowers were daisy-like, erect, about 

 two inches across, the disk golden yellow and the ray-florets 

 pure white. There is a very fine example of this species at 

 Kew, but it has not yet flowered. It thrives in a cold pit, 

 where it receives protection from frost in winter and exposure 

 to sunlight in summer. It is a striking and interesting plant 

 even when not in flower. Last year we succeeded in getting 

 from New Zealand to Kew no less than nine species of Cel- 

 misia, which arrived alive, but every one failed to grow. If we 

 can only hit upon the right way to import these plants, our 

 gardens will be considerably enriched thereby. 



London. W. Watson. 



Cultural Department. 



Memoranda from the Strawberry-field. 



A FTER an examination of my rows I am once more of the 

 ■**■ opinion that we have no berry as yet to surpass Bubach 

 No. 5 for general culture. The season here has been and be- 

 yond all precedent, and most berries are severely dried up. 

 All are injured, but Bubach No. 5 gives us good berries and 

 in large quantities. It is a solid and finely flavored fruit, and 

 never badly shaped ; the color a deep red. I shall make it 

 my staple berry in fall-planted grounds. It is pistillate, and 

 that is its only drawback. The size is very uniform, the foli- 

 age ample, the growth rapid, and the roots strong. 



Sharpless must still hold its place as one of the first for 

 quality, size and productiveness ; at least on my soil, which 

 is strong clay, it is very productive. I have planted Ontario 

 largely, and it is possible it is not the same as Sharpless ; but 

 they are so closely similar that it is not worth while to keep 

 them apart. 



Cumberland, for a very early berry, is yet unsurpassed by 

 any I have tried. I am growing fifty sorts, and, year by year, 

 this old acquaintance turns up so fine that it loses no marks of 



