45* 



THE 



GARDENERS" MAGAZINE. 



J ULY 16, 1898. 



New Hybrid Cypripediums. 



Since the discovery by amateur orchid growers that cypripediums could 

 be cross-fertilised almost as readily as cucumbers, and be followed by 

 seed almost as surely, there has been a tremendous lot of cypripediums 

 raised Unfortunately, during later years, very many of these orchids 

 have been in no degree better than those previously raised, and there has 

 been too general a use of the same species or varieties ; the natural re- 

 sult has been that the variations have, broadly speaking, been slight, and 

 a casual observer would think cypripedium hybrids and crosses of any 

 distinction could not in future be obtained. Occasionally, however, a 

 new and distinct cypripedium, artificially produced, makes its appearance, 

 and proves that there are combinations not hitherto effected, while a 

 study of the genus affords still further proof. 



Two very distinct hybrid cypripediums were exhibited by Messrs. 

 Hugh Low and Co., Bush Hill Park, Enfield, on June 28 last, and both 

 received the award of a nrst-class certificate at the hands of the Orchid 

 Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society. C. Mrs. Reginald Young 

 is a remarkable production, obtained by crossing C. Lowi with the pollen 

 of C. Sanderiana ; it has a pale yellow dorsal sepal veined with rich 

 brown. The petals stand out from the flower for a couple of inches be- 

 fore drooping, this making a wide arch ; these are narrow, whitish at the 

 base, blotched and spotted with purple that fades towards the apices into 



The short labellum is wide and full, rich burnished 



It should be added 



deep purple-brown. 



brown in front, shading to purplish rose behind, 

 that the petals are nearly eight inches long and slightly twisted. 



C. TAnsoni is a splendid new cypripedium, with large bold flowers 

 that betray their parentage. C. Morganite, itself a hybrid between C. 

 Stonei and C. superbiens, was the seed parent of C. I'Ansoni, C. Roths- 

 childianum being the pollen parent. The oblong-ovate dorsal sepal has a 

 shining, whitish ground, tinted with rose, and on this are curving lines of 

 black'sh purple, composed of contiguous spots ; the lines on either side 

 of, and next to, the medium one are shorter than it by one half, the next 

 beyond are longer, and so the lines alternate in length to the margin. 

 The ventral sepal is about the same size, and almost as finely coloured as 

 the dorsal one. The petals, drooping gracefully, are very attractive, 

 they are fairly broad at the base, but narrow gradually towards the 

 apex ; the ground colour is palest green, with a suspicion of yellow, and 

 on this are numerous claret-purple spots, some of them inclining to 

 purple-brown. As already stated in these columns, C. I'Ansoni bears 

 the name of a well-known orchid foreman at Messrs. H. Low and Co.'s 

 nurseries. Both these new cypripediums are decided acquisitions, as a 

 glance at the accompanying illustration will prove. 



Fruit Prospects in the North. 



Thk most notable crop of fruit in this district of Northumberland for trade 

 purposes is the strawberry, and it promises to be more than an average 

 crop. We have had some timely showers since the month of May, but 

 no severe frost when the plants were in bloom. Yet the weather has been 

 very changeable, with a low temperature. The strawberries are very 

 healthy and in a vigorous condition, the earliest kinds ripening some fine 

 fruits. Royal Sovereign has proved itself to be the earliest, and best that 

 we know of. It is some days earlier than John Ruskin, and altogether 

 finer, with a heavier crop. Last year we had an extra lot of plants 

 layered in pots, and we planted them out a foot or so apart. These are 

 now producing a splendid crop. 



Of apples there are not large quantities grown for market, and the crop 

 is irregular ; some few kinds have heavy crops, others very light. It is 

 rather early yet to say decidedly what the crop may be, as much small 

 and imperfectly set fruit drops at the end of this month. Among codlins, 

 Domino is specially good ; Warners King and Grenadier are good, but 

 Lane's Prince Albert, usually producing a full crop, has this year a rather 

 light one. Lady Sudeley promises to be an exceptionally useful dessert 

 kind, planted in the open. Plums on walls have been attacked with 

 green-fly more severely than we have ever seen before, and there was that 

 curling of the leaf which makes it so difficult to destroy the pest while the 

 fruit is tender. We apply insecticides moderately as soon after setting as 

 we think it safe ; and when not too cold, water from the hose is, we find, 

 one of the best methods to destroy fly, followed by picking off the worst 

 curled leaves. Vigorous, healthy well-fed trees are likely to outgrow this 

 extraordinary attack, but those who have heavy crops set on badly- 

 attacked trees should thin the fruit severely. We shall be obliged to 

 thin our Victoria plums very much. After many years of varied ex- 

 perience, I am thoroughly convinced that heavy crops should be well 

 thinned, as then the trees do not become exhausted in any one year, and 

 one can obtain a good, useful crop annually. When extraordinary crops 

 are left on, feed the trees as you may, half the crop is scarcely of any 

 use. A moderate crop results in fine fleshy fruits, with a brisk flavour, 

 which are acceptable for dessert in the northern counties. Jefferson is 

 again very fine, but Kirk's Gage is not well cropped. 



borne of the apricots have needed much thinning, and for a general 

 crop we find there is nothing so fruitful here as Moor Park, 

 on open walls have been setting queerly 



Fetches 



, , . « , f . The fly has been a plague on 



peaches also, but, after some care and trouble, the trees are growing 

 away clean. Gooseberries are not so heavy a crop as we occasionally 



Whitesmith has a much hea ' 



this season. 



away 

 have. 



Violets Dim." 



I VENTURE to submit the subject of violas to your reaH 

 in their sweet associations. Our book lovers I know win i trust al °ne 

 the poet's sake, our artists for their pleasing- shaH^ e them for 



our scientists for the truths they so simply tell and all i . W le * ra «. 

 just being violets dim, pansies freaked, thought tokens frn n their 

 onwards. om childhood 



Shakespeare must have loved the violet Tan™, tn 

 his « Plant Lore of Shakespeare," has eighteen" references t l,fr in 

 The poet notes it as "of virtuous season, forward, not permanent ° WCr 

 not lasting the perfume and supphance of a minute n nmn '.»™ ' . s . we «t. 



to being nodding dim and blue. He makes it an emblem of tfeT aadltion 

 death of youth in Pericles and Hamlet ; he uses ii fo?the measur"? V y 

 in Henry V., where the monarch says of himself « the violet smHlft u" g 

 as it doth to me," but shows its limitations in his son n «s w h? ? 

 speaks of secrets — > wuen 



" These blue veined violets whereon we lean 

 Never can blab, nor know not what we mean." ' 



Milton, telling of the blissful bower in Paradise, writes how th* * 1 ♦ 

 with crocus and hyacinth underfoot, * in rich inlay broidered the wo ? 

 more coloured than with stone of costliest emblem" Sir W s 

 crowns it as queen of wild flowers, and by all the poets, for beautv nr(n 

 sweetness, the violet seems to be noticed, as the printer maWrl 

 Ellacombe say, " with affectation." P maKes Unon 



It is strange that whether Queen or "lowly down," as some would 

 have it, the violet has no English name. *»•*•-•■ ulu 

 Greek ion, through the Latin viola. 



TU X ,olet I s 1 borrow ed from the 

 1 ne old vocabularies give the viola 

 translated as Banwyrt, Clcefre, "viole apple leaf," wyolet vyolvtte 

 violetta, a violet, from the eleventh to the fifteenth century In the 

 tenth century is the unkindest cut of all, where the herb Viola purpurea 

 is spoken of as useful "for new wounds and eke for old, for hardness of 



maw. 



In Charles II. time it was a cure for consumption. Its medicinal 

 uses are still respected, and the chemist finds in it a delicate and useful 

 test. Some violets of the old writers were not violets at all ; the early 

 writers on natural history following Pliny called any early flowering plant 

 they fancied a violet ; even in 1693 Gilbert writes of "the lesser early 

 bulbous violet a common flower, yet not to be wasted, because when none 

 other appears that does, though in the snow, whence called snowtlower 

 or snowdrop," as the only violet. In all Eastern countries it is a 

 favourite flower. The legend goes that Mahomet said "The excellence 

 of the extract of violet, above all other extracts, is as the excellence of 

 me above all the rest of creation ! It is cold 

 in winter." 



blossoms. 



is com in summer and hot 

 The sherbert of the Grand Seigneur is flavoured with its 

 In classic times the Athenian crowned with violets was a 

 most honourable distinction ; the Romans cultivated it in their gardens 

 the troubadours received a golden violet as a prize in their floral games. 

 Later in France it became the badge of the Imperial party, and was 

 identified with the Buonopartists during Napoleon's exile at Elba. His 

 farewell promise was to return with the violet. Byron has it 



11 Farewell to thee, France, but when Liberty rallies 

 Once more in thy regions, remember me then ; 

 The violet grows in the depths of thy valleys, 

 Though withered, thy tears will unfold it again." 



His health in exile was toasted as " Caporal Violette, the flower that 

 returns with the spring." 



Mdlle. Mars was hissed by the body guard of Louis for wearing 

 violets. The Empress Eugenie silently accepted Napoleon III. by 

 wearing violets in her hair. Afterwards the flowers were the chief 

 tributes on his tomb. 



Many other interesting violet associations may be found in Folkard's 

 Plant Lore." Canon Ellacombe, whose " Plant Lore of Shakespeare ■ I 

 have already quoted, writes further of violets in 3 letter to myself. H I 

 send you a spray of a pretty little shrub which, unless you are a con- 

 summate botanist, you will scarcely recognise as a violet, nor is it exactly 

 a viola ; but it belongs to the family of the Violacece. It is a New 

 Zealand shrub, quite hardy, and its name is Hymenanthera crassifoha." 

 With this suggestion as to the cosmopolitan character and variety of 

 the order in stem and leaf and fruit, I would bring the subject nearer 

 home. It wpuld be presumption on my part to describe the three 

 hundred species of the Violace^e, few of which I have been fortunate 

 enough to see but in Britain ; instead of fifteen smaller divisions or 

 genera erf" Violaceae we have only one, that of viola represented, and in 

 place of the two hundred species contained in it we have but six, on the 

 authority of the "British Flora" of Bentham and Hooker, and of these 

 three are nodding acquaintances with us all. V. odorata, the sweet 

 violet ; V. canina, the dog violet ; and V. tricolor, the wild pansy or 

 heartsease. So also are the other three, as far as their retiring dis- 

 position will permit. I allude to V. palustris, the ™r*h violet 

 V. arenaria, the sand violet ; and V. hirta, the hairy one. 

 the native species of the genus viola. ■ ._ _ f ■ thc 



Even these I cannot pretend to describe in any detail, but oniyui 

 two which horticultural^ are most interesting. I refer to the sweet \101c 

 and the wild pansy. These two are distinct in little matters of form anu 



marsh 

 These are all 



aU ^ Canton Green; and Red Warrington are 



wi K dusSS wiS ?LTK eberry <\ ater PiHar has just made an attack, and 

 ^^l^S^Xf^T P ° wder ' which ^ be washed off by 

 touXa^, 'EMS* "° «*, » K - a poison. wi 



vier crop than Whinham's Industry habit, such as the upper petals of the sweet violet are bent forward to 



means 

 dust it 



form a hood, while those of the pansv are upright and give the flower 

 flat, face-like appearance. Again, the stipules, or outgrowths at the re* 

 of the leaves are small in the violet and relatively large 'n P*" 5 /' 



*»"»an 111 LUC V1U1CL IUUUTv; o irinlet 111 



tnrough a muslin bag. Of black rnr^n7 ~ "v" " * / ^ a V 1 ': " c 11 doin S much of the work of leaves, and 'last, the flowers of the wok 



finest crops we have ever seen uZl !lJSTR Y °' Spn ?, g ' sweet as the V are, do not often seed, but leave the work :fcj 



vanetv. fe a c„K.._: 5 Seen - Hammond's Victoria is a very fine smaller buds, « cleistogamous flowers," that have their stamens so place* 



Superlative is excellent '* * "* - 



on can. fi " ^ 



*L..a„ Ci uuus, "cieistogamous flowers," that nave meir ^*"7"Vn ' and 

 above the ovary that the pollen may send its tubes directly 



is fairly good, as usual, S^lfiLR?: "Sffi ™ ^ Duke cherrv f ^ the ovules without any insect aid at all in its deposit The owe 

 Aln wtck C*& SU* MOrell ° 15 ^ «gg* g • botanis* were, so. struck by 'the discovery that they named onejlan 



■ auuLK Dy tne CllbUUVCiy men. " ■ Qr « nn mV 



the wonderful violet," to express their admiration for its economy 



