AUGUST. 



105 



DISA GRANDIFLORA var. SUPERBA. 



WITH AN ILLUSTKATION. 



Nearly forty years ago there appeared in the "Botanical Register" a 

 plate representing, in very faithful terms, the normal form of Disa grandiflora. 

 The drawing was made from a plant grown by a Mr. Griffith, of South Lam- 

 beth, who received it from the Cape of Good Hope, and who had the honour of 

 being the first person in Europe who succeeded in flowering it. What the 

 conditions were under which it was induced to flower at that time we are not 

 informed ; but it was suggested in the work referred to that " it will probably 

 succeed best in very fine sandy peat, never allowed to become saturated with 

 moisture ; and, during the period when the plant is at rest, kept quite dry." 

 This, which is the treatment usually accorded to Cape bulbs, may have been 

 the means of misleading cultivators in the management of Disa grandiflora ; 

 and hence the reason why its flowering in this country has been an event of 

 such rare occurrence. For the discovery of the successful cultivation of this 

 splendid plant we are indebted to Charles Leach, Esq , of Clapham Park, who 

 has been unusually fortunate in blooming it ; and the practice he adonts is 

 thus recorded in the Gardeners' Chronicle for 1861, page 646 : — 



" With regard to the Disa, it should be borne in mind that it is a mountain 

 and a bog plant, which means, that it abominates a close stove or Orchid- 

 house, and that it delights in water. The other treatment is as follows r— 

 When done flowering, let the pots be plunged into ashes in the open garden, 

 fully exposed to sun and air— there let them remain, watered moderately in 

 dry weather, with a hand-light over in long continuous rain, and to protect 

 them against frosts— till October or November, when they should, if necessary, 

 be shifted into larger pots, and removed into a greenhouse, where, just pro- 

 tected from frost, and near the glass, syringed over twice a-day, the young 

 offsets will continue to grow, and the parent bulbs will again shoot up. In 

 February a little increase of heat may be given, and in March and onwards a 

 syringing, even three times a-day, will not be too much ; and the natural 

 increase in the temperature will then suffice to bring up the flower-stems in 

 May and June, at which time a little more heat in a warm and airy conserva- 

 tory will do no harm. 



" At the Cape the Disa, I am told, dies down. Here I find that it does not 

 require to do this ; the young offsets coming up long before the old plant 

 gives any sign of taking the species of rest produced by drought. I am 

 further informed that at the Cape, while the open country is burnt up with the 

 hot rays of the sun, Table Mountain enjoys the benefit of the celebrated Table 

 Cloth [of clouds], with which the south-easters cover it during the summer 

 season ; and I conclude that the Disa in this way has plenty of moisture at its 

 roots during the dry season, while at other times it luxuriates in water." 



In the Journal of Horticulture, vol. i, new series, page 295, Mr. Beaton says, 

 « % It requires the very same kind of treatment as we have always advised for 

 Tritoma aurea, and which so few followed out. Among all the bulbous-looking 

 plants in cultivation, there are no two of them so mucli alike in their constitu- 

 tion and m their very peculiar habit of dying down yearly but never going to 

 rest. Before the growth of this year dies back, that for next year is up and 

 doing, and they both spawn very much at the roots ; both are very thirsty 

 plants, and both resent and sulk at the least attempt at forcing them or sub- 

 mitting them to one extra degree of heat more than is necessary to keep them 

 from the frost." 



The variety Supeeba, so admirably represented in our accompanying plate 

 VOL. II. j o tr 



