5 2 ° 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 193. 



and I suspect Schaffner's 962, from the San Rafael Mountains, 

 does also. 



[Note. — Since the publication of my note on Pringle's No. 

 1864, and Nothochlana Nealleyi in Botanical Gazette (1. a), Pro- 

 fessor Underwood has identified the latter Fern as Fournier's 

 Aleuritopteris Schajfneri, and having personally examined and 

 compared Schaffner's specimens from his herbarium with the 

 specimens of N. Nealleyi, now in my possession from Mr. 

 Seaton, I can vouch for the accuracy of his determination. 

 There can be no question as to the identity, and as Fournier's 

 species was published and described in 1880 (Bull. Bot. 

 Soc. de France, xxvii., p. 328) from specimens collected by 

 Schaffner in the mountains of San Miguel, in September, 

 1876, it necessarily supersedes and retires Mr. Seaton's N. 

 Nealleyi. Schaffner's specimens, as well as those from Mr. 

 Nealley's later collection, show that the species, like nearly all 

 of its congeners, has the stipites, rachises and sori brownish 

 as well as blackish, and that the frond becomes bipinnate.] 



Holiday Notes from Switzerland. — I. 



THE latter half of July and the beginning of August of the 

 current year were spent by Mr. Bean, one of my Kew col- 

 leagues, and myself in Switzerland, and we remained in the 

 open air by far the greater part of every day. A large number 

 of species was seen by us, and the following notes may be of 

 interest to those readers of Garden and Forest who cultivate 

 some of the beautiful herbaceous and alpine plants we noted, 

 but who may not have had an opportunity of seeing them amid 

 their natural surroundings. We took the steamer at Lucerne 

 for Fluelen — the port of the canton of Uri — and enjoyed to the 

 full the glorious scenery, which, according to many travelers, 

 is unsurpassed in Switzerland, and even in Europe, for mag- 

 nificence. The beautiful banks are also intimately associated 

 with those historical events and traditions which are so 

 graphically depicted by Schiller, in his William Tell. From 

 Fluelen we took train to Goschenen, and then began our walk- 

 ing tour through Andermatt and Hospenthal to Tiefenbach, 

 thence over the Furka Pass to the Rhone Glacier and after- 

 ward down the Rhone Valley to Sierre. From the last-named 

 town we turned up the Val d'Anniviers to Vissoye and then 

 ascended to the Hotel Weisshorn, built at an elevation of 

 about 7,550 feet above sea-level, on the Tetaz-Fayaz, or Sheep's 

 Head. Here we stayed a week, and in that time had not 

 nearly exhausted the district when we were compelled to re- 

 turn to duty. 



Shortly after leaving the station at Goschenen (3,640 feet) we 

 entered the sombre rocky defile of the Schollenen, bounded 

 by lofty and almost perpendicular granite rocks, at the base of 

 which dashes the Reuss. Before arriving at the Devil's Bridge 

 we noticed large sheets of Astrantia minor on the flat rocky 

 ledges by the road-side ; this is a charming plant ; the umbels 

 are about half the size of those of A. major, and, like that spe- 

 cies, it is thoroughly deserving of a place in any rockery or 

 herbaceous border. Strange to say, however, it is very rare in 

 cultivation in Britain, and might be inquired for in vain in 

 most establishments, even where alpine and herbaceous plants 

 are grown for sale in enormous quantities, both as regards 

 number of species and individuals. In the crevices of steep 

 rocks Saxifraga Cotyledon, with its dense rosettes of grayish 

 green leaves surmounted by graceful waving panicles of 

 white flowers, was certainly both conspicuous and beautiful 

 enough to satisfy even the most exacting ; in some parts of 

 Switzerland, notably at Locarno, this species is so plentiful 

 that its panicles, together with the flowers of Lilhim bulbi- 

 ferum, are used in the decoration of the temporary altars which 

 are erected at the street-corners on the occasion of the feast 

 of Corpus Christi. For this fact, as well as for information as 

 to the distribution of Swiss plants, I am indebted to the clas- 

 sical work of Dr. H. Christ, "La Flore de la Suisse et ses 

 Origines." Let me add, by the way, that botanical and horti- 

 cultural readers of Garden and Forest who contemplate a 

 Swiss tour should peruse this book before starting, and also 

 take it with them for reference. The Turk's Cap Lily (L. Mar- 

 tagon) was also seen growing among the sparse brush-wood 

 on the steep slopes ; in several English counties this species 

 is known by the rather droll name, " Turn again Gentleman." 

 Under similar conditions a yellow Foxglove [Digitalis luted) 

 was seen. The three last-named plants, however, were seen 

 after passing the Devil's Bridge, which, by the way, was "or- 

 namented " by a staring advertisement painted in large letters 

 on the surface of the smooth perpendicular rock, and by a rude 

 picture, a conventional representation of his Satanic majesty 

 watching with dismay the first living thing — a hungry dog — 



which crossed the bridge, just then completed by the pious 

 Abbot Giraldus, of Einsiedel, for the convenience of pilgrims 

 on their way to Rome. Every one is familiar with the way in 

 which the devil was cheated on this occasion, for is not the tra- 

 dition made use of by Longfellow in his " Golden Legend " ? 



Before reaching the Urseren Valley a fine Dianthus was 

 collected on hot dry banks ; under similar conditions Ceras- 

 tium arvense was seen, forming dense snowy sheets of blossom. 

 Wonderfully differing in aspect from the wild region already 

 traversed is the above-named valley, with its fertile green pas- 

 tures watered by the Reuss ; it is about eight miles long and 

 is surrounded by lofty and barren, partially snow-clad, moun- 

 tains. Here winter lasts nearly eight months, and fires are 

 often necessary during the short summer. Along the numer- 

 ous water-courses Ranunculus aconitifolius grows in abun- 

 dance ; the double-flowered state of this species — which is so 

 frequently met with in old-fashioned country gardens — is known 

 in England under the pretty name of " Fair Maids of France." 

 The Snake-root, Polygonum Bistorta, was seen in such pro- 

 fusion as to color the entire meadows, and this, together with 

 Campanula rhomboidalis, produced such color-effects as are, 

 perhaps, not to be seen away from an alpine meadow. The 

 intensely bright sunlight makes up somewhat for the short 

 summer, and the plants bear flowers deeper and richer in 

 color than do the same species under cultivation in Britain. 

 The tuberous roots of the Polygonum are astringent and con- 

 tain a considerable proportion of starch ; they were formerly 

 much used in medicine, and are still highly esteemed by the 

 rustic herbalist ; in some countries they are turned to account 

 as food during famine-times. At Andermatt, the principal 

 village of the valley, prevails a curious custom which also ob- 

 tains in some other parts of Switzerland ; the charnel-house 

 attached to the church is adorned with skulls bearing inscrip- 

 tions, "On the occasional opening of the graves the skulls are 

 conveyed by the relatives of the deceased to the charnel-house, 

 where they are kept in symmetrical piles." Between Ander- 

 matt and Hospenthal, in the small patches of rye, Delphinium 

 cotisolida — the parent of some of our races of cultivated annual 

 Larkspurs — occurred as a weed, as well as another fine blue- 

 flowered plant, the Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare), a biennial 

 which, if cultivated in rich garden ground, increases wonder- 

 fully in size and vigor, but, on the other hand, really loses 

 much of its beauty. From Kealp onward many characteristic 

 alpine plants began to be conspicuous in the steep pastures. 

 One of the most charming was Campanula barbata, a beauti- 

 ful Bell-flower, from three to twelve inches in height, with 

 large pendulous bearded corollas, varying in color from white, 

 through pale porcelain blue, to deep blue. Veratrum album, 

 the so-called White Hellebore, was perhaps more striking as a 

 foliage plant than by reason of its tall panicles of greenish 

 flowers. Gentiana purpurea, about a foot in height, with a 

 terminal cluster of large red-purple flowers, was in full blos- 

 som here at an elevation of about 5,500 feet; much later on, 

 about 1,500 feet higher, we only found it in bud. 



Royal Gardens, Kew. George Nicholson. 



New or Little-known Plants. 

 Dendrobium Phalasnopsis. 



THIS is the most beautiful of all the Dendrobiums 

 hitherto introduced from northern Queensland and 

 the adjacent islands. It was discovered at Cape York, on 

 the extreme north of Queensland, by a Captain Broomfield, 

 who introduced living plants of it into his garden in Bal- 

 main, Queensland. Here it flowered, and was figured by 

 Fitzgerald in his folio work on Australian Orchids. He 

 also sent a description of it to the Gardeners' Chronicle for 

 July, 1880. His figure represents a plant with pseudo- 

 bulbs eighteen inches long, terminal, erect racemes, pro- 

 duced from the matured pseudo-bulb, the longest raceme 

 being one and a half feet long and bearing ten flowers and 

 buds. The flowers measure two and a half inches across, 

 and they are described as being lilac in color, with a few 

 small dark calli on the disk of the labellum, and two white 

 glands at the base of the column. There is a family like- 

 ness between D. Phalasnopsis and D. bigibbum, D. super- 

 biens and D. Goldiei, but, as Fitzgerald points out, the first- 

 named is easily distinguished from these three in the form 

 of its flowers and the shape of the labellum. The name 

 D. Phalcenopsis was given by Fitzgerald from the likeness 

 of its flowers to moths as well as to those of the genus Phalae- 



