October 21, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



497 



mouth of the tube, formed by the union of the column with 

 the stalk of the W^.—Kew Bulletin, 1891, p. 200. 



L^elia grandis, var. tenebrosa, Hort. — This is a very dis- 

 tinct and handsome variety of Lcelia grandis, which origi- 

 nally appeared with H. Tate, Esq., of Allerton Beeches, near 

 Liverpool, in May, 1889, and appears to have been first intro- 

 duced by Monsieur Travassos from a new district in Brazil. 

 It has since flowered in several other collections. The 

 segments are flatter than in the original form, less undulate, 

 and of a decided copper-bronze tint, while the lip is purple, 

 somewhat darker in the throat, and with a white margin. 

 — Gardeners' Chronicle, August 1st, p. 126 ; Lindenia, t. 290. 



Odontoglossum Hennisii, Rolfe. — A very elegant little 

 Odontoglossum, sent to Messrs. Charles worth, Shuttle- 

 worth & Co., of Heaton, Bradford, from Ecuador or Peru 

 by their collector, Mr. W. Hennis, after whom it is named. 

 In size and color it resembles 0. odoralum, Lindl., but its 



Fig. 77- — A Clematis Borer (Acalthoe caudata). — See page 496. 



Figs. 1 and 2. Male and female, with'highly magnified sections of their antennje 

 4. Pupa. 5. Cocoon. 6. Section of part of injured root. 



real affinity is with O. crinaium, Rchb. f. , which has a very 

 similar lip. This organ is three-lobed, white marked with 

 reddish brown, the side lobes rounded, the front one longer 

 and acuminate, and the disk consisting of numerous hair- 

 like filaments. The sepals and petals are yellow, barred 

 with brown. — Gardeners' Chronicle, August 8th, p. 158. 



R. A. 



Kew. 



Rolfe. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



WE have had more bright sunshine in England during 

 September than in any month this year, which, so 

 far, has been decidedly bad for horticulture. But sunshine 

 came at last, and it has done a great deal of good. The 

 garden now is beautiful with yellow Sunflowers of all 

 kinds, purple Asters, tall fragrant Lilies and many-colored 

 Dahlias. In some few places the pretty Crocuses proper, 

 with their mimics, the Colchicums, make the lawns, rock- . 

 garden and lake-side gay with purple color. Even the 



Pelargoniums are bright with flowers, and the Roses were 

 never better. September and October bring many rich 

 color-effects both of flower, leaf and fruit in a well-made 

 garden. I have often wondered that the really beautiful 

 autumn-flowering species of Crocus have not yet been 

 properly "discovered" and taken in hand by horticultur- 

 ists generally. At Kew there are beds set apart for them, 

 not much space certainly — in fact, only just sufficient for 

 the plants to show what they could do if they were used 

 for the production of effect in autumn as the spring-flower- 

 ing species are used now. They may be had in small 

 quantities from the bulb-growers, and propagated just as 

 easily as the common garden kinds. Colchicums are quite 

 as useful as the best of Crocuses. In England one may see 

 meadows spread over with the rich purple of the native 

 species, C. auiumnale, the Meadow Saffron. It is also a 

 favorite garden-plant with a few who can appreciate the 

 beauty of our native plants when cultivated in the 

 garden. The English Crocus (C. nudiflorus) is also 

 abundant in fields and meadows, and is often mis- 

 taken for the Meadow Saffron from its flowering at 

 the same time and growing in similar situations, as 

 well as from the resemblance between the flowers of 

 the two. 



Among exotic species of both genera there are 

 many that deserve a large place in every garden. 

 Of Colchicums there are C. speciosum, from the 

 Caucasus, with flowers as large as a wine-glass ; 

 C. Parkinsoni, with purple flowers conspicuously 

 reticulated with a paler color, and C. variegatum, 

 of the same peculiar character. But the king of 

 these checkered flowered kinds is a new one — new 

 to cultivation, that is, and named by Mr. Baker 

 C. Sibthorpii. It was first described by Sibthorp 

 in " Flora Grseca " under the name of C. latifolium, 

 but this name had previously been used for another 

 species, hence the present name. For its introduc- 

 tion into gardens we have to thank Herr Max 

 Leichtlin, who obtained it two years or so ago from 

 Salonica. With his usual generosity he sent a few 

 bulbs of it to Kew, where it is now beautifully in 

 flower. In their handsome form, large size and last- 

 ing qualities the flowers resemble C. speciosum, but 

 they are of the richest rosy mauve and prettily 

 checkered like C. variegatum. I should say that in 

 the whole range of hardy autumn-flowering bulbous 

 plants we have nothing better than thisColchicum. 



A list of all the hardy bulbous plants in flower 

 here now would be longer than one would expect. 

 Besides those above named there are the Bella- 

 donnas, some with their large blush-tinted trum- 

 pets in full blow, others only just pushing their 

 purple noses through the soil. When they are all 

 up there will be hundreds of them and all on a nar- 

 row border under a greenhouse wall, which is clothed with 

 hardy Fuchsias, while the border is edged with the white 

 Zephyr Flower (Zephyranthes Candida). This is proving a 

 better edge-plant than Box even ; at any rate, it is growing 

 amazingly well in a position which appears to have been 

 too hot and dry for Box. The deep shining green of the 

 short, graceful, rush-like foliage and the numerous white 

 star-shaped flowers produce an effect of value in the gar- 

 den. This effect, too, is permanent throughout the sum- 

 mer, and in winter the leaves remain green and fresh, 

 frost having no effect upon them. The tall scapes of the 

 white-flowered Watsonia, which Mr. O'Brien introduced 

 from the Cape two or three years ago, are a new and 

 pleasing feature among bulbs, for the scapes are four feet 

 high, branched near the top and crowded with the whitest 

 of white trumpets, which measure two inches across the 

 mouth. Another charming Watsonia is a white-flowered 

 W. densiflora. This species differs altogether from Mr. 

 O'Brien's plant ( W. iridi/olia) in having an erect, un- 

 branched scape, clothed near the top with brown scales, 

 giving the flower-head an appearance exactly like a ripe 



