A RARE ORCHID AND A NEW AGAVE. 



mixture has not protected our potato-vines from the 

 attacks of our old enemy, a form of leaf-blight ; nor our 

 celery from the celery-blight, nor our cucumber-vines 

 from the blight or blights peculiar to these plants. We 

 could not positively affirm that we have noticed any effect 

 of our sprayings, frequently as they were applied. 



We believe that fungicides of greater power and ef- 

 fectiveness than any now generally recommended and 

 used are needed. The scientists of our stations should 

 make greater exertions to discover them. So far as the 

 grape diseases are concerned, we may be able to give at 

 least a hint. Our experience seems to justify the state- 

 ment that a thorough washing or soaking of the still dor- 

 mant vines in early spring, when such treatment is still 

 safe, with concentrated solutions of sulphate of iron, 

 and the thorough spraying of the trellises, wires, and even 



of the ground with the same solution, will show better 

 results in preventing these grape diseases than five spray- 

 ings of the foliage later on. We have for several seasons 

 given our vines, badly diseased before, two such thorough 

 washings each spring, and credit to this treatment the 

 evident fact that the rot, etc, is gradually disappearing, 

 and this at the same rate on vines sprayed and unsprayed 

 during the growing season. Strong solutions of copper 

 sulphate would, in all likelihood, be as effective as the 

 iron-sulphate solution, and we suspect that a one per 

 cent, solution of sulphuric acid would have the same 

 happy effect. Of course, these solutions cannot be ap- 

 plied to the vines during their season of growth, as 

 they would scorch the foliage ; but they may give us a 

 pointer as to where we must look for light upon the 

 vexed question. 



A RARE ORCHID AND A NEW AGAVE. 



PLANTS FROM 



|HAT excellent plant, Cattleya lobata, 

 is very rare in cultivation, considering 

 the popularity of orchids in these days. 

 It was introduced from Brazil in 1847, 

 by Messrs. Loddiges, of London, Eng- 

 land, and was first flowered at their 

 nursery the same year, so that it can- 

 not by any means be called a novelty. 



Having had occasion to trace up a figure of the plant 

 some time ago, I was surprised 

 to find that only one has been 

 published, and that practically 

 inaccessible. This appeared 

 in that venerable journal — the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle — in 1848, 

 with descriptive particulars by 

 Dr Lindley. The illustration on 

 the opposite page, taken from a 

 plant which flowers regularly dur- 

 ing May and June in the Harvard 

 Botanical Garden, will give or- 

 chid-growers of to-day some idea 

 of the beauty of the flowers. 



C. lobata is a free-growing spe- 

 cies, the club-shaped pseudo-bulbs 

 bearing a single oblong leaf of a 

 deep green color. The bloom- 

 spikes are very long, and bear 

 from one to six flowers, six inches in diameter, of 

 pale purple color, with many divaricate lines of 

 rich, deep purple in the lip. The margins of the 

 lobed petals and lip are beautifully fringed. 



Many regard this orchid as shy in the develop- 

 ment of flowers, hence its neglect by cultivators. 

 The specimen at this place is not at all coy in the 

 matter, having borne 14 flowers this season and 17 last 

 year. It is grown in a basket containing rough peat- 

 fiber, charcoal and crocks, and occupies an airy position 



THE TROPICS. 



near the glass in a house, the temperature of which 

 seldom falls below 60° Fahrenheit. Water is given freely 

 during the growing season, but almost totally withheld 

 at other times. 



The length of C. lobata' s bloom-spikes renders them 

 admirable for cutting, in which state they last a long 

 time. They retain their full beauty unimpaired about 

 six weeks after development, when allowed to remain on 

 the plant that length of time. 



Agave vestita. 



the new agave. 

 Since the introduction in 1875 of Affave Victoria 

 Retina from southern Mexico, there has been no more 

 interesting or beautiful addition to the genus than that 



