368 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 7, 1885. 
Aerides Schroederi £55, and Cattleya labiata, £31. The Eev. 
W. Ellis’s collection sold for £600 in 1872. Mr. Russell's of Fal¬ 
kirk for £2211, when Cattleya Russelliana fetched £44, Sacco- 
labium giganteum £72, and S. guttatum £65. In 1877, Mr. 
Wilkins’ Orchids sold for £1800. The Manley Hall collec¬ 
tion of S. Mendel, Esq., which during several years (from 
1869-73) had gained such fame, was sold for over £4000, 
Saccolabium guttatum superbum realising £46, Cypripedium 
Stonei £38, Oncidium splendidum £47, Masdevallia Lindeni 
£39, and many other similar amounts. 
“ The first portion of Mr. Day’s celebrated Tottenham col¬ 
lection was sold early in 1881 for £1847, when Cypripedium 
Stonei platytasnium brought the enormous sum of 140 
guineas, the only plants of Cattleya Blunti in the country 
realising 17 guineas and £42 respectively. The second por¬ 
tion, sold April 12th and 13th, brought £1803, Cattleya 
exoniensis 48 guineas, Phalasnopsis intermedia 62 and 42 
guineas, Dendrobium Schroederi 38 guineas, Lafiia purpurata 
30 guineas, and Cypripedium Spicerianum 25 guineas. The 
third portion was sold the 4th and 5th of May, the total being 
£1888 for 659 lots; Cypripedium Stonei platytaenium, 120 
guineas, Cypripedium Spicerianum 42 guineas, Cattleya 
labiata, autumn-flowering variety, 40 guineas, and many 
others realised similarly high prices. The fourth portion was 
sold at the end of May for £1521, when Cattleya Skinneri 
alba realised 52 guineas. The total amount of these four 
sales realised £7000, and some others were sold subsequently. 
Since then high prices have been obtained at various sales ; 
but the most remarkable of all was in September, 1883, when 
a plant of a new Aerides, introduced by Mr. F. Sander, was 
sold to Sir Trevor Lawrence for 235 guineas, the highest 
price ever paid for any Orchid. This was subsequently 
named Aerides Lawrenci®. A portion of Dr. Paterson’s 
collection was sold in 1883, realising £800, the plants bring¬ 
ing large prices, as Cattleya labiata Warneri, 79 pseudo-bulbs 
45 guineas, C. labiata 39 guineas, and Dendrobium thyrsi- 
florum Walkerianum 37 guineas. 
“ Some hybrid Orchids have also realised very high prices, 
running up to and above 200 guineas; yet in contrast with 
these, abundance of useful and easily grown Orchids can now 
be purchased for a few shillings each, and for £5 an interest¬ 
ing little collection can be obtained. We thus have a re¬ 
markable contrast in the value of these plants, for while 
rare and beautiful species, varieties or hybrids, have never 
realised such high prices as at the present time, never could 
‘ cool house ’ Orchids be procured so cheaply. As an illus¬ 
tration of the variability of prices, the history of Dendrobium 
nobile nobilius, as related by Mr. H. James, may fittingly 
conclude these notes. * The original plant of D. nobile 
nobilius was bought at Stevens’s Rooms in 1876, and was one 
of a bundle of twelve plants, which cost 12s. It flowered in 
the imported pseudo-bulb early in 1877, and was exhibited at 
Kensington. It was shortly afterwards sold to Messrs. Rol- 
lisson for 5 guineas, by whom it was exceedingly well grown 
and flowered freely in 1879, when it was sent to the Ghent 
Show in extremely cold weather and nearly killed. In the 
following autumn I bought the apparently dead plant for 
75s., and raised six small plants from the tops of the pseudo¬ 
bulbs.’ Small specimens still realise 10 guineas each, and 
one of the finest, that at Selborne, Streatham, is probably 
worth at least 60 guineas.” 
On another occasion we may perhaps give an example of 
this Orchid “ Review ” of a totally different character. On 
reading the brochure we were reminded of one of the many 
pithy sayings of Dr. Johnson—namely, “When a man 
writes from his own mind he writes very rapidly; the greatest 
part of a writer’s time is spent in reading in order to write. 
A man will turn over half a library to make one book.” So 
much information could not be compressed into fifty-six 
pages without much research, and we have no hesitation in 
saying the manual is worth its money to all who are in¬ 
terested in the remarkable family of plants to which it is 
devoted. 
We observe in it lists of hybrid Orchids raised by Mr. 
Dominy and Mr. Seden, the former being credited with 
twenty-three, the Jatter with fifty-four hybrids. At the 
meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on October 11th, 
1881, Mr. Dominy was worthily presented with a gold watch 
and 200 guineas in recognition of his skill and perseverance. 
We have more than once intimated that successful hybrid- 
isers and creators of valuable plants are at least as well 
deserving of reward as persons who buy, grow, and exhibit 
them, and we think that Mr. Seden’s unparalleled success as 
a raiser of Orchids ought not to be overlooked. 
GARDENIA. CULTURE. 
When I commenced my gardening career forty years ago Gar¬ 
denias were as much esteemed as now. A few plants at the end of 
a Pine stove that gave some esteemed flowers each year in April and 
May were my flrst Gardenias. The plants were old, they were cut in 
each year after flowering, potted when they had started afresh, en¬ 
couraged to make a good growth to set the buds, and were rested 
through the winter, just giving sufficient water to keep the foliage 
fresh. This, according to modem ideas, was quite inaccurate, and yet 
nine-tenths of the practice of the present time is very similar. In 
many places a few plants in pots grown with a mixed collection of 
plants are what we find employed to supply the demand for this 
esteemed flower. The blooms under such circumstances are small, 
and small Gardenias are no good—nobody cares for them, therefore 
we must grow them large, and as far as my experience goes this 
cannot be done with plants in pots. Gardenias can of course be 
grown in pots, and are very useful for decorative purposes, therefore 
we are impelled to pursue of sheer necessity the least advantageous 
system. 
To grow Gardenias well it is necessary that the house be light, 
well ventilated, and efficiently heated. A low span-roofed structure 
is the best, with a centre bed 6 feet wide and 3 feet high from 
the floor, with two rows of plants 3 feet apart, the walls being 
4£ inches, and taken off the width of the pit or the 6 feet, the plants 
being placed nearer the edge, so as to have them 8 feet apart every 
way. A pathway 2 feet wide all round will be necessary, and a 
2 feet shelf of slate or stone round the outside, and 2 feet 6 inches 
from the floor. The side walls may be 2 feet 6 inches high, having 
wooden ventilators in them 2 feet 3 inches long and 9 inches deep at 
every 3 feet, which will allow of a 9-inch pillar only between them, 
and which should come opposite or immediately under the front 
uprights or the rafters hung at the top, the air in entering passing 
the hot-water pipes beneath the shelf. The side lights must be 2 feet 
high, which with the wall plate and head will make the sides fully 
5 feet high from the floor, and as the house is 14 feet wide inside 
and with 9-inch side walls we have with a fall for the roof of 1 foot 
to 3 feet. The ventilation at top is best afforded in lantern fashion, 
which need not have a wider opening than 1 foot the whole length, 
and if covered with a wooden ventilator that will lift 6 inches nothing 
more is wanted. Four rows of 4-inch pipes will be needed on each 
side and beneath the side shelves ; the top surface of, say, two of 
those on each side may be furnished with evaporation troughs. 
Such a house with a fixed roof, light yet substantial rafters, and 
sashbars glazed with 21-oz. sheet glass, thirds quality, in large squares 
is not very expensive, and similar houses are in extensive use in 
nurseries where they do things more economically than in private 
gardens. It will suit Gardenias well; but where the demand is 
great, and a regular succession of flowers is required, there should be 
two houses, or at least a partition, so that there may not be any break 
in the succession as would otherwise arise when the plants are renewed, 
as they need be every third year after planting out. The side shelves 
give space for growing on young plants, and afford those required in 
pots for decorative purposes. 
In preparing the centre bed we must provide good drainage, and 
to save the trouble and expense of drains there should be holes left 
in the course of bricks just above the floor by which the superfluous 
water can drain off on to the paths, which are best formed of iron 
grating with gravel underneath, or if of cement, tiles, &c., there must 
be a fall for the water to run off to a grating. This is a certain way 
of getting to know when a watering has been given in sufficient 
quantity to show at the drainage. The bottom of the bed must be 
concreted, and be highest in the centre, so as to throw the water pass¬ 
ing the drainage to the sides. Eighteen inches depth of drainage is 
necessary, as we only need 18 inches depth of soil, placing the 
roughest at the bottom and finest at top, which may be gravel or other 
material secured with a layer of fibrous peat. We then form hillocks 
where the plants are intended to be, flattening their tops, so that we 
have 15 inches of compost in the centre above the layer of peat, 
which may be 3 inches thick, or 18 inches in all above the drainage. 
