474 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 189.. 



A collection of all our Asters, or even of a dozen or two 

 of the best, would make an important and most interesting 

 addition to any garden, and its value would be all the 

 greater because many of these plants flower after the first 

 frosts have cut down more tender plants. 



Several of the American Asters have already been figured 

 in these columns, and on page 473 of the present issue is 

 reproduced a drawing made by Mr. Faxon of Aster Shortii, 

 which, although by no means a new plant, does not appear 

 to have been figured before. 



A. Shortii is a native of cliffs and river-banks from Ohio 

 to Illinois and of the states south of the Ohio River, and is 

 one of the handsomest of all our species. The stems are 

 spreading, two to four feet high, and produce great race- 

 mose panicles of large bright blue flowers and ample lan- 

 ceolate elongated leaves. 



Like the other species, A. Shortii is easy to cultivate ; it 

 can be readily transplanted from the woods, and will thrive 

 and spread in good garden-soil. Asters, like many strong- 

 growing perennial plants, give greater satisfaction if the 

 roots are lifted once in every two or three years, divided 

 and reset. In this way a large stock of plants can be ob- 

 tained in a few years, and the surplus not needed for the 

 flower-borders can be planted by the margins of wood- 

 walks and in other rough places where all such plants 

 flourish and appear to the greatest advantage. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Cattleya labi ata vera. — An Orchid sale of quite excep- 

 tional interest took place on September 18th in the Cheap- 

 side auction-rooms. Messrs. Sander & Co. had advertised 

 no less than 500 lots of "the supposed long-exterminated 

 old autumn-flowering typical Cattleya labiata, . . from Swain- 

 son's hunting-grounds, . . . who actually used its stems in 

 packing his lichens for transport" (vide sale catalogue). 

 The plants are "guaranteed true." A large number of 

 Orchid experts and others interested in these plants assem- 

 bled at the sale, and from the fact that the plants realized 

 over ^1,000 we may conclude that experts were disposed 

 to accept them as genuine. Every Orchid fancier knows 

 the value, interest and beauty of the autumn-flowering C. 

 labiata which Lindley described in 18 18, founding the genus 

 Cattleya upon it. According to Veitch's "Manual," C. la- 

 biata was found by Swainson in the Organ Mountains, 

 situate about sixty miles north of Rio, "but where it is be- 

 lieved to have beeirexterminated many years ago. Although 

 diligently sought for by collectors it has never been redis- 

 covered." Mr. Linden, however, claimed to have rediscov- 

 ered it in his C. Warocqueana, and there are some authori- 

 ties who declare that some of the forms of this plant do not 

 differ from the old C. labiata. And now come Mr. Sander's 

 plants, which are guaranteed to be the true thing. The 

 source of these plants, as well as of Monsieur Linden's 

 C. Warocqueana, is a trade secret, but it has been hinted 

 that Rio is nowhere near it. Certainly Mr. Sander's plants 

 have all the characters of the true C. labiata, so far as pseudo- 

 bulbs, leaves and sheaths show, but no definite decision 

 can be come to until the plants flower. At present we can 

 only say that there is no reason for doubting the genuine- 

 ness of the plants, and every Orchid grower will hope that 

 they will prove to be what Mr. Sander properly calls " C. 

 labiata autumnalis vera, the queen of Cattleyas." According 

 to information sent by the collector of Mr. Sander's plants 

 they vary in the color of their flowers : "Plenty of whites 

 are among them, and all shades of rose and red." The few 

 plants known to exist of the old C. labiata are supposed to 

 have been obtained by division from one or two original 

 pieces, which will account for the absence of any differ- 

 ence in the leaves or flowers of those known in English 

 gardens. But among Mr. Sander's imported plants I noted 

 some with short thick, others with long thin, pseudo-bulbs ; 

 some with purplish, others with bright green, leaves, as 



well as differences in the length and width of the leaf- 

 blades. But they were all alike in having the double sheath 

 or spathe, the valves in which are of the same length. 

 This character is said to be peculiar to C. labiata vera. 



Arachnanthe Clarkei. — This appears to be by far the 

 easiest to grow and flower of the species of Arachnanthe 

 in cultivation. The genus is made up of the plants pre- 

 viously known as Esmeralda or Vanda Cathcartii, V. Lowii 

 and one or two others not at present known to be in culti- 

 vation. The most remarkable of all is, of course, A. Lowii, 

 whose gigantic size and long drooping inflorescence, bear- 

 ing two forms of flowers, make it quite exceptional, even 

 among garden Orchids. But it requires a good deal of 

 space, and even when well treated it does not flower- 

 annually. The same remark applies to A. Cathcartii, 

 whereas A. Clarkei flowers when only a foot high, and, so 

 far as my experience with it goes, it never misses a year. 

 It has the habit and leaves of Renanthera coccinea, and pro- 

 duces its racemes laterally. Each flower is three inches 

 in diameter, the sepals and petals spreading, oblong, 

 falcate, fleshy and colored chestnut, with yellow bars. 

 The lip is three-lobed and yellowish white, with red 

 streaks. There is a plant of it now in bloom at Kew with 

 five flowers on the raceme, whereas published descriptions 

 limit the number to two or three. The species was dis- 

 covered in the Himalayas by Mr. C. B. Clarke, F. R. S., and 

 introduced into cultivation in 1885 by Messrs. H. Low & 

 Co. Mr. R. Pantling, an Indian botanist, who has seen 

 this plant growing in the Himalayas, wrote of it in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, in 1888, as follows: "It occurs on 

 a thickly wooded crest or ridge, at an altitude of about 

 6,000 feet, where sun and wind have free play amidst its 

 surroundings, drenched with cool rain and driving mists 

 during the wet season, exposed to a fair amount of sun- 

 shine during the remainder of the year and visited by a 

 sprinkling of snow at the commencement of the new year. 

 At this altitude the temperature, during the hottest month 

 of the year, never exceeds seventy-five degrees, Fahrenheit, 

 in the shade, while in the two coldest winter months the 

 thermometer ranges from about thirty degrees to forty-five 

 degrees. As a consequence A. Clarkei assumes a much 

 more stunted appearance, and never at any time ap- 

 proaches the straggling length of A. Cathcartii. The flowers 

 open in October and last about six weeks." 



At Kew the plants are grown in a warm house along 

 with Vandas, /Erides, etc., their position being close to 

 the roof-glass and directly over a water-tank, where the 

 air is always moving, as the tank opens into a cool house 

 as well. They are planted in pots, in crocks and sphag- 

 num, and kept very moist all the year round. A. Cathcartii 

 is. represented hy a plant at Kew about twelve feet high. 

 It is planted against the back wall of the Aroid-house, its 

 fleshy roots clinging to the wall in the same manner as 

 Hoya-roots do. 



Stenoglottis longifolia. — This is an easily grown and 

 free-flowering terrestrial Orchid, which was introduced at 

 Kew from Natal three years ago, and has since flowered 

 yearly in the cool Orchid-house. The genus comprises 

 only two species, namely, 6". fimbriata, a small plant, 

 chiefly remarkable for the conspicuous black eye-like 

 blotches on the leaves ; and this new one, of which a 

 figure was published in the July part of the Botanical Maga- 

 zine for this year. It has numerous herbaceous ensiform 

 wavy leaves six inches long, and a central scape a foot or 

 one and a half feet long, the lower half bearing bract-like 

 leaves, and the upper a dense spike of rosy purple flowers 

 with ovate sepals and petals and a lip with a fimbriated 

 apex. After flowering the leaves all wither, and the plant 

 remains dormant until spring, when it pushes up new 

 growths from its fleshy root-stock. It requires plenty of 

 water at all times. 



Habenaria militaris. — This is now flowering in the trop- 

 ical Orchid-house at Kew, and it is so exceptionally bright 

 in color that, despite its dimunitive size, it is quite a great 

 attraction. It was first described by Reichenbach in 1886, 



