76 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
it, it differed from all other varieties of 
Pampas Grass in having three distinct 
flowerings in each year : one in July 
simultaneously with that of Ai^tmdo \ 
conspicua (known to some as the Sum- I 
mer Pampas), another in September, 
and a third at the end of October. 
But the climate of the mild sea-board 
of the south of Ireland has now changed 
all this and brought about one flower- | 
ing, soon after the blooming of the | 
Arundo and before that of any other | 
form of Pampas Grass. The peculiarity 
in which lies its great charm consists 
first in the beautiful rosy-purple silky j 
sheen of its inflorescence, and then the | 
even distribution of its flower panicles j 
on both sides of the stem, whereas | 
those of all other varieties are either 
perpendicular, like a fox's-brush, or all 
drooping to one side. The flower t 
stems are very tall, reaching to an 
average height of lo leet, and so many 
that my plant produced at one time as 
many as torty-six spikes. No one who 1 
has seen a good specimen of this fine 
plant in its lull beauty will, I think, 
object to its being addressed, i 
Ave Coi^tadertarum Regiiia gi^acillufia I 
et pulchey^rijna. \ 
The man who has planted a garden feels 
that he has done something for the good of 
the world. He belongs to the producers. It 
is a pleasure to eat of the fruit of one's toil, 
if it be nothing more than a head of lettuce ! 
or an ear of corn. One cultivates even a 
lawn with satisfaction ; for there is nothing 
more beautiful than grass or turf in our lati- 
tude. The tropics may have their delights, 
but they have not turf ; and the world with- j 
out turf is a dreary desert. ! 
Charles Dudley Warner. ; 
ZYGONISIA ROLFEANA.* 
This plant was first exhibited in the 
group of Orchids put up by Messrs. 
Sander at the Holland House Show of 
the Royal Horticultural Society in June, 
1 90 2, when it gained an award of merit. 
Passing into the famous collection of 
Sir Frederick Wigan at "Clare Lawn," 
it is now a large plant with four spikes 
of flower just showing. It was raised 
at St Albans from seed of Aga7iisia 
lepida crossed with pollen from Zygope- 
talum Gautiei^i^ thus constituting one 
of those generic hybrids which have so 
increased of late years. 
The Zygopetalum or pollen-parent 
is really only a good and more recent 
form of Z. maxillare (an old kind 
brought from the Organ Mountains of 
Brazil in 1 8 2 9) , and it has before figured 
in generic crosses, as with C olax jugosus. 
A plant of creeping habit, with small 
bulbs and long narrow leaves, it pro- 
duces nodding scapes of six or seven 
flowers of dull brown on a green ground, 
with a violet-purple lip. The seed- 
parent, Agaiiisia lepida^ is also a fairly 
old plant, having been first introduced 
in 1865, though at that time it soon 
disappeared and has more recently 
(1893) come to light again from the 
Rio Negro district of Brazil. It is of 
more tufted habit than the Zygopetal- 
um, with small bulbs, long grass-like 
leaves, and tall many-flowered scapes of 
pure white flowers inches across. 
The hybrid, shown in the plate, is 
a plant of very robust constitution, and 
with us has bloomed twice in each year. 
The ovoid bulbs are about \\ inches 
* With a coloured plate from a drawing by H. G. Moon at " Clare Lawn," East Sheen. 
