JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 22, 1886. 
Town Botanic Garden are offering it with many choice 
bulbs, and I know of several who are purchasing it, and of 
course many others will do so. From experience I may say there 
need be no surprise if the flattened bulbs lie dormant for a year 
or so without revealing the slightest signs of life, as it seems to 
be peculiar in this respect. 1 have some imported two years 
since which are still dormant, but apparently plump and good. 
In cold and damp situations it will be best to lift the 
bulbs every winter and replant in spring. I do this for the 
same reasons. They may with safety be put in the ground 
early in April, as they are some time before they show 
above ground; indeed there is no fear of them doing so 
before the most treacherous season is past. They may remain 
until the stems are cut down by frost, when it is necessary to lift 
and lay them in a cool place to dry off gradually. In storing, 
they should be treated similar to the hybrids of Gladiolus 
gandavensis. As well as keeping the bulbs during winter in 
frost-proof quarters it is equally needful to keep them out of the 
reach of mice, as these are very fond of the bulbs. Hence it is 
also important to watch any c'umps which may be left out all 
winter in the positions mentioned above, or they will be devoured 
speedily when once the larder is found. 
When planting, let me urge the advantage of applying manure 
freely. See that the position is a warm and well-drained one, 
and during dry weather give plenty of water’, and I am sure they 
will render a good account of themselves; for although the 
individual flowers are fugacious, several of them are produced 
upon each stem, and a fair clump throws up a good number of 
stems, so that a lengthened and effective display is the result. 
The number of forms is not very large. The tlxi’ee best in my 
opinion are T. speciosa alba, T. conchitlora, and T. Pavonia. 
The first is charming, the flowers pure satiny white, barred in the 
centre with carmine-crimson, and slightly blotched yellow; a 
most delicate-looking beauty. T. conchiflora has flowers of 
almost an orange yellow colour, much barred with crimson, a 
dwarf, free and very effective species. T. Pavonia rubra has 
flowers of a richer scarlet than the species, barred and spotted 
with crimson lake, a’so sparingly yellow in the centre, it is a 
strong growing, and the flowers are very large. Besides these 
there are T. cauariensis, yellow barred with rose scarlet; 
T. speciosa, rose scarlet barred and spotted with crimson, and 
the ordinary Pavonia. I might say they do well in 6-inch pots, 
many are grown thus by cottagers in parts of North Wales, and 
I have seen plants thus cultivated very fine.—T. 
EXHIBITING ROSES. 
Might I be allowed to make an appeal to the Executive Committee 8 
of Rose Societies throughout Great Britain—to wit, to fix the latest moment 
possible for the admission of Rose boxes to the exhibition room or tent, 
say as late as 11.30 if possible ? They could be ready then for the judges 
by 12.15. This would allow exhibitors from the neighbourhood until 
6 A.M. to cut their blooms, instead of getting up at 4 A.M. Roses should 
be cut dry, and by six the dew is off. Rain must be risked, or umbrellas 
be put on overnight. Exhibitors from a distance who, maybe, have to 
travel all night and arrive, say at Manchester or Liverpool at 3 A.M., 
might take “ forty winks ” comfortably in bed, before breakfasting at 
nine, and then have time to overhaul their boxes before taking them to the 
show. 
Further, might I strenuously urge all Rose Societies to adopt the 
National Rose Society’s plan of selecting judges—that is, to select three 
judges from the exhibitors in Class or Division A to judge Class B, and 
three from Class B to judge Class A, and so on. This saves much time, 
and the expense of a paid official, excellent as the latter may be 
ndividually.— Fhancesco. 
ORCHIDS. 
[A paper read by Mr. D. Birt before the Caterham Horticultural Sociely, 
December 12th.] 
( Continued from, page 48.) 
The leading feature in all the floral arrangements of Orchids 
Is this,that the insect contracts pollen only when leaving the flower. 
Were it otherwise, danger would exist of self-fertilisation. 
Permit me to refer to one more Orchid which exhibits in a 
remarkable degree, shall we call it, cleverness of device. 
The drawing (fig. lb] depicts the oi’gans of a common English 
field Oi’chid, called the Early Orchis. It is copied (by permission 
of Mr. Murx’ay) from a plate in Darwin’s book. The calyx and 
the petals have been torn off, with the exception of the under side 
of the lip, which is left in order to show how an insect would 
land on the flower. The pollen masses^re within the anther as 
you see. At the end of the tail of each pollen mass there is a 
round attachment or disc, on the under side of which is a ball of 
glutinous matter. This matter may be called cement, for it has 
the property of di’ying hard in about half a minute after the 
pollen mass becomes detached from the flower. . Whilst it is 
unsevered and l’emains encased in the covering which surrounds 
it the moist state of the cement continues. The stigma you 
will notice beneath the anther. 
Now suppose an insect to enter the flower. In the act of 
forcing its proboscis into the nectai-y (the tube at the back of 
the flower) it cannot avoid touching the foot of the anther case. 
The slightest possible touch suffices to open it. The ball, of 
cement becomes exposed and attached to the insect, and leaving 
the flower it carries one or both of the pollen masses. But you 
would naturally say, “If the pollen mass stands upright upon the 
creature’s head or back, how can the pollen reach the stigma of 
the next flower he visits ? for the stigma being immediately in 
front of, and in a line with the ci’eatui-e’s head, the pollen, instead 
of toucliing the stigma, would simply touch the bottom of the 
anther case of the second flower.” This would undoubtedly be so, 
and fertilisation would fail wei’e it not for a most curious pro¬ 
perty of that little disc at the end of the tail of the pollen mass. 
The xxpper surface of this disc in about half a minute after 
severance from the flower, contracts in one particular place,, and 
thus causes the pollen mass to become depi’essed, so that it no 
longer stands upright, but forms, as it were, a horn standing out 
in front of the insect. In the upper of the two di’awings (fig. 13) I 
have attempted to depict an insect with the pollen mass attached 
as it would appear on leaving the flower, and in the lower one 
the appearance it would present after a lapse of about thirty 
Eig. 12. 
Jl ,—Side view oi Orchis m^gculs. flower, with all tlie petals and sepals cut oil except th 
labellum, of which the near half is cut away, as well as the upper portion of the 
near side of the nectary, a, ant her, consisting of two cells; r, rostellum ; s, stigma : 
I, labellum; n, nectary ; p, pollen-mass; c, caudicle of pollinium ; d, viscid disc of 
pollinium. 
seconds, when the pollen mass should have become depressed 
by reason of the shrinkage of the front poi’tion of. the disc. If 
you will again refer to the flower you will see how nicely adjusted 
now is the pollen mass for touching the stigma of the next 
flower visited. It may perhaps be asked, Why does the depi’ession 
take place in about tliirtv seconds ? The only answer I can give 
is, to state an ascei’tained fact—viz., that it takes the insects 
which mostly visit this flower about thirty seconds, on an avei’age, 
to leave one and enter another, so that by the time a second 
flower is l'eached the pollen mass is in position to strike the 
stigma. That person must be insensible indeed who cannot be 
moved to admiration of these strangely constnxcted forms, each 
having its own marvellous arrangement for securing the con¬ 
tinuance of its race. 
The idea is not unfi’equently met with that flowers bloom and 
birds sing and Nature gaily appai’els herself solely for man’s 
pleasui'e. A little thought, however, with the facts, for instance, 
in our mind as to the l’elations and mutual dependance of flowei’s 
and insects, suffices to negative this idea. As reasonable would 
it be to say that fleas were created to annoy man, or.alligators to 
eat him, as to say that flowex’s bloom merely to.gratify him. 
The truth is, the more we see of that one chief mystery of the 
universe—life—that never-ceasing energy which meets us at every 
turn, and asserts itself under infinitely varying conditions ; the 
more, I say, we study the manifestations of this great mystery 
(for its inner seci’et we cannot leax-n) the more disposed do we 
become to regard all life, as well of plant as of animal, as one in 
