October, 1914-] 



'rHi<: ()Kc:iiii) wori-d. 



3 



Botanical Congress. — We hear on good 

 authority that the Fourth International 

 Botanical Congress arranged to be held in 

 London, May 22nd to 2gth, 1915, has been 

 indefinitely postponed. 



J^if 



MasdevalLIA MUSCOSA. — This curious 

 little species is noted for the irritability or 

 sensitiveness of its labellum, which when an 

 insect alights on it suddenly shuts up against 

 the column and encloses its prey. This move- 

 ment may be brought about by touching the 

 yellow ridge with any light substance, such as 

 a hair, the lip remaining in its upward position 

 for about twenty minutes, after which it again 

 descends ready for the entry of any small 

 insect. Consul Lehmann states that this 

 species has a very wide and irregular 

 geographical distribution throughout Ecuador 

 and Colombia, extending fully 600 miles 

 from north to south, in a temperature of about 

 60 degs. Fahr. Wherever it is found the 

 atmosphere is uniformly damp during the 

 whole year. It grows most frequently upon 

 the trunks and thick branches of trees in 

 mountain forests, where the absence of under- 

 wood allows a perpetual circulation of air. 

 The scarcity of such woods accounts for the 

 rarity of the plant, for although found in so 

 many localities it is nowhere common. In 

 many parts of Ecuador it also grows upon 

 volcanic rocks and walls of lava, and produces 

 the largest and most highly coloured flowers, 

 the flowering season being in February and 

 March. 



41 II 



Phal.'ENOpsis Schilleriana. — In the 

 year 1885 there was a remarkable plant of 

 this species in the collection of Mr. Perkins, 

 Kirkley Hall, Northumberland. It had eight 

 leaves, each about 16 inches long, and two 

 spikes which carried over 250 flowers. There 

 were also four other plants, all of which had 

 been grown from adventitious buds formed 

 on the old flower-spikes of the above 

 specimen. The floriferous habit was con- 

 tinued in the same style, one of the plants 

 jiroducing a spike of 140 blooms. 



ORf:i!ll)S Damaged. — We have had a 

 violent storm, the hailstones being of immense 

 size and falling with great force ; not only 

 was a large quantity of glass broken, but the 

 hailstones were forced right through the 

 leaves of many Cattleyas, going m at one 

 side and out at the other, while numbers of 

 growths were filled iqj with particles of ice. — 

 H. G. Croslcy, La Fcrtc Bernard, Sarthe, 

 France. 



?!S 



HEAIIPILIA AiMETHYSTINA. — The genus 

 Hemipilia was founded by Lmdley, who 

 remarked : " It differs from Platanthera 

 ( = Habenaria) m having the glands of the 

 ])ollen masses concealed by the mflexed 

 points of the stigmatic canals, which thus 

 form an imperfect pouch, and in the enlarged 

 projecting upper hp of the stigma or 

 rostellum." It is also characterised by its 

 single broad leaf and spikes of purple. Orchis- 

 like flowers. Only three or four species are 

 at present known. H. amethystina was intro- 

 duced with Cypripedium Charlesworthii from 

 the Shan States of Eastern Burma, by Messrs. 

 Lewis and Co., Southgate, and exhibited by 

 them, Royal Horticultural Society, June gth, 

 i8g6, under the name Pogonia Lewisii, when 

 a Botanical Certificate was awarded. Soon 

 afterwards Mr. R. A. Rolfe detected that the 

 plant was in reality a Hemipilia, and described 

 it under the name H. amethystina, Bot. Mag., 

 Feb., 1897, a coloured figure being included. 

 Under this latter name the plant was again 

 shown at the Royal Horticultural Society by 

 Sir Fred. Wigan, July loth, igo6, and a 

 second Botanical Certificate obtained. Three 

 years later it was seen in one of Messrs. 

 Sander and Sons' groups. This autumn it 

 has been in flower in the collection of Mr. A. 

 Grant, Rugby House, Cleethorpes, whose 

 gardener, Mr. W. Chorley, sends us the spike, 

 with the remark that this plant, just as in the 

 original type specimen, was imported with 

 Cypripedium Charlesworthii; in fact, it sprung 

 up from among the roots of a recenth'- 

 imported plant. The large cordate green leaf 

 has brown mottling, the erect spike carrying 

 many Orchis-like flowers of amethyst colour. 



