224 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



[September, 1916. 



remember one occasion when these pests 

 were unusually numerous, and when Mr. 

 Stuart Low, father of the present bearer of 

 this name, was lifting some brides several 

 of us were close by crushing the vermin as 

 they fell. Just at that moment the worthy 

 Swiss happened to pass and at once grasped 

 the humour of the situation. " Get a gun, Mr. 

 Low," he called out, " get a gun." Of course, 

 some merriment was indulged in, and the 

 cockroaches made the most of their oppor- 

 tunity, but we were soon after them and but 

 few survived. 



I remained with Mr. Low for just two 

 years and then entered the service of Mr. 

 John Day, of Lower Tottenham. The houses 

 then were mostly filled with ferns; there were 

 not enough Orchids to fill one hand-barrow. 

 Soon after Mr. Day removed to High Cross, 

 where new houses were erected and the ferns 

 arranged in them. Additions were constantly 

 being made. The Gleichenias were Mr. 

 Day's special favourites, and from Messrs. 

 Sims, of Foots Cray, choice specimens were 

 constantly arriving. On one occasion the 

 writer was sent to Messrs. Loddiges, at 

 Hackney, for a piece of a rare Gleichenia, 

 when an opportunity was taken to see their 

 Orchids. Entering" the Orchid house in 

 company with the grower, Mr. Keith, I think, 

 was his name, I was charmed with the grand 

 plants of ALndes odoratum growing in 

 wooden baskets and standing about on the 

 floor ; they were in flower, and the beauty of 

 these clean-foliaged, healthy plants with such 

 an abundance of flowering spikes created a 

 delight and a joy that, I must confess, has 

 never left me. 



Mr. Day soon lessened the space devoted 

 to ferns, and as Messrs. Low were constantly 

 receiving fresh importations of Orchids many 

 fine clumps were despatched to him at High 

 Cross. In a short period, Vandas, .^^Irides, 

 Saccolabiums (1 use the original designation) 

 and Phatenopses, both in the imported and 

 established state, were secured. All these 

 plants made excellent growth and progress. 

 I remember when brides Dayanum was at 

 first described as A. virens major, but its 

 superiority to that species warranted the 



distinctive appellation, and Dayanum remains, 

 in honour of the man whose name it bears. 

 One other plant which I well remember 

 was the Assam variety of Dendrobium 

 Wardianum ; this was grown under the name 

 D. Falconeri obtusum, and in some respects 

 differed from the Burmese form, which has 

 much stouter bulbs, each producing from 

 twelve to thirty flowers. The Assam variety 

 has much thinner bulbs on which the nodes 

 are more pronounced ; the flowers, too, are a 

 little smaller, the sepals and petals slightly 

 narrower than the Burmese form, but the 

 colour is much more vivid ; though the 

 flowers were less m number, the intensity of 

 the coloration made up for this deficiency. 



After three years' service with Mr. Day, I 

 became general foreman at Bowes Manor, 

 Southgate, and also had a season's duty at 

 landscape v/ork at Stroud Park, Herne, Kent. 

 I then entered Mr. Day's employ for a second 

 term of three years, and it was whilst at High 

 Cross, Tottenham, that I became specially 

 enamoured with the brides, Vandas and 

 Saccolabiums, the former being represented 

 by specimens 3 — 5 feet high, full of leaves, 

 some with shoots rising from the base, and m 

 their season flowering most profusely. Among 

 the brides were plants of odoratum, in 

 several varieties, Dayanum, crispum, Lar- 

 pentas, Lindleyanum, Fieldingii, affine roseum, 

 Lobbii and Schroderi. Of the Vandas, 

 tricolor and suavis were the principal ones, 

 though, of course, teres and coerulea ever had 

 a fair share of attention and rewarded us 

 accordingly. Of the Saccolabiums, there were 

 guttatum, retusum, pr^morsum, curvifolium, 

 and others, all vigorous and pleasing. I 

 remember on one occasion being set to tie up 

 a Saccolabium, and when it was finished 

 thirty-three spikes had been attended to ; the 

 whole was indeed an attractive sight. Mr. 

 Stone, the grower, whose name is perpetuated 

 in Cypripedium Stonei, managed his plants 

 well ; at the Crystal Palace and the Regent's 

 Park Shows he invariably proved himself an 

 honourable first-prize winner. Interesting, 

 too, at this period, were the East Indian 

 plants shown by R. Bullen, gardener to Dr. 

 Butler, of Woolwich, whose collection of 300 



