486 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 190. 



The number of Cattleyas and Laelias in stock is esti- 

 mated at over 50,000. Cypripediums, Dendrobiums, Vandas, 

 Coelogynes, Lycastes, Phakenopses, Angracums, Masdevallias 

 and other popular garden genera are also grown in immense 

 quantities. 



At all seasons of the year there is much of interest to be 

 seen here, and a visit during the comparatively dull season of 

 August proved no exception to the rule. Many species and 

 hybrids of Cypripedium were in bloom, including the chaste 

 little C. niveum, C. tonsum, C. Parishii, C. Curtisii, also 

 C. X picturatum, C. X J avanico-superbiefis , C. X Hornianum, 

 C. < To, C. x vexillarium and many others, some of them in 

 quantity; also C. X Maynardi and C. X Pollettianum, two very 

 tine ones raised in the establishment, which have recently re- 

 ceived awards at the hands of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 and which, together with the equally beautiful C. x Castlea- 

 nitin, are to be figured in an early number of the Reichenbachia. 



A large batch of Cattleya Gaskelliana was finely in bloom, 

 including the chaste variety Albens ; also Cattleya Eldorado, 

 C. Dowiana, C. velutina, C. porpkyroglossa, C. Schofieldiana, 

 Lcelia crispa, L. monophylla, L. elegans and L. Sckilleriana, 

 some of them' in varieties of great beauty. 



A healthy batch of Vanda Hookeriana, well known as a diffi- 

 cult subject to cultivate, was observed, some of the plants be- 

 ing in flower. A very interesting sight in one of the houses 

 was a group of the remarkable Swan Orchid (Cycnoches chloro- 

 chilon), many of the plants being in flower, and among them 

 two females, in which the column is very much shorter and 

 stouter than in the males. It appears that while the latter have 

 been known for so many years, the former have not been ob- 

 served before the present season. 



Several distinct varieties of the beautiful Odontoglossum 

 Harrya?itim were in bloom, but among many of the better- 

 known forms was a plant of the rare natural hybrid, 0. x Hors- 

 tnanni, a specially interesting subject, whose parents are be- 

 lieved to be 0. Pescatorei and 0. hiteopurpurenm. 



Until quite recently the seedling Orchids and some others 

 have been located in a smaller nursery some distance away, 

 but during the present summer new houses have been 

 erected, so as to have the collection all together. Part of the 

 plants had been duly installed at the time of my visit, and 

 in some respects this proved to be the most interesting part of 

 the establishment. Here are hundreds of seedlings of various 

 kinds, some of them from the choicest crosses, from which 

 many novelties may be expected in the future. Some of the 

 crosses pointed out were between distinct genera, and their 

 flowering is awaited with considerable interest. A large stock 

 of patience, however, is required in this work, for it is by no 

 means an unusual circumstance for a seedling Orchid not to 

 reach the flowering stage until it is from five to ten years old, 

 though some arrive earlier at maturity. 



Mr. Sander has introduced to cultivation many very valua- 

 ble Orchids, among which may be mentioned Maxillaria San- 

 deriana, Odontoglossum Sanderianum, Phalcenopsis Sanderiana 

 and Vanda Sanderiana, and he has lately re-introduced the 

 genuine autumn-flowering Cattleya labiata, so long supposed 

 to be exterminated. _„ . 



London. Visitor. 



Cultural Department. 



Cabbage and Cauliflower Plants. 



PLANTS of Cabbage and Cauliflower intended to be win- 

 tered over in frames, from seed sown in September or 

 October, ought to be gotten into their winter quarters by the 

 1st of November, so as to get fixed and at home before severe 

 weather sets in. The plants should be set quite thickly. We 

 usually put about 800 plants under a three by six-foot sash. 

 The plants should be set, where frosts are severe, so as to 

 cover the entire stem in the soil, or they may be split and 

 made worthless by freezing. After placing them in the frames 

 keep the glass off as much as possible, to harden them. The 

 object is not to make them grow much in the frame, but to 

 keep them in a semi-dormant state, so do not clap on the sash 

 as soon as light freezing occurs. If gradually inured to the 

 air, a temperature during the winter of twenty-five degrees un- 

 der the glass will not hurt them, but if started into a tender 

 growth by being kept too close they will be injured by the 

 slightest freezing. Cauliflowers are rather more tender than 

 Cabbages, and need closer attention in severe weather. 



From Baltimore southward the practice is to set Cabbage- 

 plants in the open ground instead of frames. Ridges running 

 east and west are made with a plow in well-prepared and 

 highly manured land, and the plants are set thickly upon the 

 south side of the base of the ridge, so as to allow for some 



loss by winter-killing and running to seed, which sometimes 

 happens when the seed is sown too early and too much 

 growth is made before cold weather. The ridges are worked 

 down and the plants cultivated by horse-power in spring. The 

 practice of sowing Cabbage and Cauliflower-seed in fall for 

 wintering over in frames at the north is not now so extensive 

 as formerly, because it has been found that plants from seed 

 sown in hot-beds or greenhouses in February and hardened 

 off in cold frames are better, and but little later, than those 

 wintered over. Even in this latitude, Cabbage-seed sown Janu- 

 ary 1st in greenhouses and hardened off in cold frames, so as 

 to be set out by the middle of February, will give nearly as 

 early and a much more certain crop than the fall-sown seed. 



But for Cauliflower frame-culture here is far the best. For 

 this we set the plants in a three by six-foot sash, for they 

 are to head there, and fill in between them with Lettuce for 

 heading, and later on sow Onion-seed for transplanting. The 

 Cauliflower-plants are kept in a moderately growing state 

 through the winter, and are gradually inured to the air by ex- 

 posure on all occasions when there is no hard frost, which will 

 here be nearly always in daylight, and by the last of February 

 they are stripped entirely of the sashes, which are transferred 

 to other frames to protect the early Tomato-plants. Plants of 

 a good strain, such as the Snowball or Erfurt, will head very 

 uniformly in March and early in April. The chief danger is 

 in getting them stunted or checked, which causes them to 

 " button " or form little worthless heads in February. The . 

 Lettuce will usually be cut out by Christmas, and the Onions 

 transplanted in February. 



Raleigh, N. c. W. F. Massey. 



Roses. 



'THE extremely hot weather which prevailed during a large 

 ■*■ part of September has doubtless injured many Roses now 

 in preparation for winter flowering, for the growth made 

 during that period will mostly be thin and weak, and therefore 

 more liable to attacks of disease. The sudden change, too, 

 from very warm to chilly nights and more seasonable weather 

 will be very likely to produce mildew unless strict attention 

 is paid to ventilation and heating, and it is at such a time as 

 this that sulphate of lime proves useful as a mildew remedy. 

 There is not enough heat in the pipes to generate fumes from 

 sulphur sprinkled on them, and dusting the plants all over with 

 sulphur makes them unsightly. Syringing .the plants with sul- 

 phate of lime in solution, however, leaves but a slight deposit 

 on the foliage and soon stops the spread of the fungus. A 

 good formula for the preparation of this mixture is the follow- 

 ing : Slake five pounds of lime in six gallons of water, add five 

 pounds of flour of sulphur, and then reduce the whole by 

 boiling to two gallons. This should be allowed to settle, after 

 which the clear liquid may be bottled off, and thus kept ready 

 for use, in the proportion of one thumb-potful of the liquid to 

 two gallons of water, to be applied with a syringe as the neces- 

 sity arises. This preparation has a somewhat unpleasant odor, 

 but this remains for a short time only, and as the treatment is 

 more effective when applied late in the afternoon or evening 

 this disadvantage is but slight. 



Green-flies will also appear from time to time, and as the 

 Roses will not yet be in flower, unless an early crop is desired, 

 fumigation will be found the cleanest method of disposing of 

 this pest. Later in the season fumigating should be dispensed 

 with, for the blooms of most Roses are easily injured by this 

 process, being either crippled in the bud or having their color 

 bleached out. Among those specially susceptible to injury are 

 Catherine Mermet and The Bride. To overcome this difficulty 

 the evaporation of tobacco-water in vapor-pans placed on the 

 heating-pipes has been tried with excellent results, since the 

 vapor so produced is deadly to the green-fly, and does little, if 

 any, damage to the flowers. 



Neat tying and staking adds much to the appearance of a 

 Rose-house. The neatest method undoubtedly is that of 

 stretching wires from end to end of the beds, in line with 

 the plants, to which the plants are tied as their growth de- 

 mands. This plan does away with stakes, and allows full play 

 for light, air and water among the foliage. 



The subject of fertilizers is one that is not easily settled, for 

 much depends on the kind of soil with which the beds have 

 been filled. Where the compost is of a clayey nature it is not 

 well to give a heavy dressing of stable-manure, for in this way 

 the soil may become sodden, while a more concentrated ma- 

 nure may give a much better result. Hen-manure, sheep- 

 manure, bone-dust, wood-ashes and many of the standard 

 manufactured fertilizers are valuable, but their use should be 

 guided by experience, for no hard-and-fast rules can be laid 

 down for the application of special manures. 



