174 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 28,1884. 
when 1800 named varieties were exhibited, and 900 of these were after¬ 
wards shown in Manchester and Birmingham. Mr. Nield then gave some 
useful suggestions as to the cultivation of Apples. It is his intention to 
publish the paper in book form. 
The Chairman, Mr. F. J. Broome, Mr. Birkenhead, Mr. Richard Astley, 
Mr. Thomas Worthington, and Mr. Plant took part in the discussion which 
followed. Some severe strictures were passed by several of the members on 
Mr. Kynaston’s pamphlet on “ Out-door Fruit for the Million.” 
Mr. Plant remarked that practically what Mr. Kynaston had written in 
his pamphlet -was worthless and absurd, and it had been the cause of much 
unpleasantness between gardeners and their masters and mistresses. 
The Chairman said the views set forth in Mr. Kynaston’s book were 
misleading, and those persons who had the slightest faith in those views 
possessed a very superficial knowledge of the subject. 
Mr. W. Swan, the Honorary Secretary, said he would have liked each 
member to have brought to the meeting a few Apples grown in his particular 
district, so that the members might have decided which were the best 
varieties that could be produced in the vicinity of Manchester. He suggested 
that the names of the varieties should be sent to him in order that he might 
submit them to the next meeting. 
NOTES ON ORCHIDS. 
Dendrobium Wardianum. —Calling a day or two since 
upon Mr. Keeling, the able gardener at Mount View, Sheffield, 
I was shown a remarkably fine display of this beautiful Orchid 
coupled with a large general collection of other Orchids, such 
as Phalsenopsis, Ccelogynes, Odontoglots, Cattleyas, Oncidiums, 
Ac., now in bloom. The plants of D. Wardianum, numbering 
over fifty, are mostly in full bloom, and a large proportion of 
them are very strong pieces, having each six to ten strong breaks 
with four to six flowering growths, many of which are 4 feet in 
length, and on one growth I counted thirty-one blooms. Among 
them are some very fine varieties with blooms 4 inches in dia¬ 
meter. One especially I noticed, being very heavily tipped on 
the sepals and petals with a bright magenta-crimson, the lip 
also beautifully coloured. The plants are nearly all grown in 
baskets suspended from the roof with the flowering growths 
hanging in a natural manner, in which position they are much 
more effective and beautiful than when grown in pots and the 
growths stiffly tied to stakes. Mr. Keeling also finds that with 
him the growth is much more satisfactory in baskets than in 
pots. 
Oncidium serratum. —In the same house with the Den- 
drobes is a plant of Oncidium serratum with a branching spike 
of flowers over 16 feet in length, and carrying upwards of fifty 
blooms. The flower spike is suspended to the roof immediately 
over the pathway, and has a very striking effect. 
Phal/ENOpsis Schilleriana. —Flowering very profusely 
are several plants of this fine Orchid. One of them, carrying 
two flower spikes with twenty flowers on each, has produced a 
young plant with a leaf 8 inches long upon one of the spikes at 
about 18 inches from its base. 
Ccelogynes are very fine, especially a pan of C. cristata 
Lemoniana with twelve spikes of six and seven blooms each. 
Especially noticeable also are some beautiful highly coloured 
varieties of Cattleya Trianse, with a fine collection of Odonto¬ 
glots and Masdevallias now in bloom. A large span-roofed 
house about 60 feet by 20, built by Messenger, is very gay with 
a fine collection of bulbs (Hyacinths and Tulips), Cinerarias, 
Cyclamens, and Camellias, making with the Orchids a combined 
display of choice flowers such as is rarely seen, and of which the 
spirited proprietor (D. Ward, Esq.) and his gardener may feel 
justly proud.—W. K. W. 
Odontoglossum Roezlii. —This and its variety alba are 
amongst the most beautiful and useful Orchids we have for 
cutting. It is very graceful for vases, also for personal adorn¬ 
ment. Good-sized plants may be grown in 5 or 6-inch pots. 
Those who possess half a dozen plants or more can generally 
find a spike or two amongst them, for they produce flowers more 
or less all the year round. To keep this Odontoglossum in good 
health it must be grown warmer than the crispum type : 60° to 
65° as a minimum temperature, 5° extra as a maximum, with a 
proportionate rise in summer and abundance of light, but not 
direct sunshine. It must never be allowed to become dry at any 
time of the year, and when in full growth it will require a large 
supply, also damp well between the pots twice a day. A good 
guide with this class of Odontoglot, as well as those that belong 
to the O. crispum type, is to supply sufficient water to keep the 
sphagnum in a healthy growing condition, and the plant will 
generally be the same. The sphagnum must not be allowed to 
overrun the bulb, or it will cause the stem to damp. A good 
guide I find is to supply water when the tips of the sphagnum 
have a white tinge on them, but not a parched appearance. The 
water should be applied through the rose of a syringe, as it can 
be given more regularly than with a watering pot. The best 
season for repotting this Odontoglot is November. Thrips are 
a great enemy if allowed to gain headway ; it disfigures its beau¬ 
tiful foliage very much. On the first appearance of the pest 
it should be dipped in a preparation of nicotine soap. 
Odontoglossum vexillarium. —This requires the same 
treatment as O. Roezlii, except that the temperature which 
should be lower: 50° to 55° as a minimum in winter, with 5° extra 
by fire heat for the day temperature, with proportionate rise in 
summer. Although these Orchids do not like a close atmosphere 
they must not be exposed to draughts, which would be fatal to 
their well-doing.—A Grower. 
Lycaste Skinneri. —Is it an uncommon occurrence for 
Lycaste Skinneri to produce twin flowers on one spike ? The 
second this season is just opening with me, and I do not remem¬ 
ber to have seen this before. The plant which is flowering just 
now has the flowers curiously blotched and marbled.—R. P. B. 
Phaius grandifolius. —This deserves to be largely grown; 
aud flowering as it does just now when most of the Oalanthes 
are over, it is the more useful. Those who possess a plant of 
Phaius grandiflora should shake it out and pot singly in 32’s ; 
employ good loam, charcoal, brick rubbish, and saud; grow it 
in the stove along with the-ordinary collection of stove plants. 
It likes the treatment good gardeners give their stove plants. 
When fresh potted it should be shaded from bright sun till well 
established, when it will need more light to consolidate the 
growths. It must be placed in a greenhouse temperature for 
a few weeks in the autumn and kept a little on the dry side. 
After this slight rest it can be brought on in heat to follow the 
Calanthes. I treated an old plant in the way described last 
year and made a dozen plants of it, nine of which at the present 
moment are cariying over 250 blooms and buds. One was given 
to a lady which carried away with it three good flower spikes, 
and two have not flowered at all.—G. Merritt. 
THE YOUNG GARDENER QUESTION. 
Now that the fire of criticism on the advice to young gardeners 
by “A Working Gardener,” and on the allusion made respecting 
them by me in my communication in our Journal of December 26th, 
1883, is dying out, it becomes my duty, as one who opened the 
subject, or at least who said a hearty yes, yes to the one who did, 
to give a word or two in reply. I may at the outset, perhaps, be 
allowed to say how surprised I have been all through the discussion 
of this subject to find that so few have caught the spirit of goodwill 
towards young gardeners that shines between every line of “ A 
Working Gardener’s” exhortation, or to recognise the good-humoured 
banter that I tried to put into my words. Only “ Wiltshire Rector ” 
in his annual homily in the Journal of January 3rd, 1884, seems 
to have a notion that all that was said by “A Working Gardener” 
and myself was said with an unselfish and loving desire for the best 
interests and truest happiness of our younger brethren. His kind 
and gentle allusions to our writings, and his wise, sympathetic, and 
encouraging words of advice to young gardeners, are such as well 
becometh the Christian priest, and worthily and fitly' commence our 
volume for 1884. I say here also a hearty amen to the Editor’s 
charitable and hopeful words touching the young gardeners that 
appear in his greeting “To our Readers." It does one good to hear 
that he can, from his wider outlook over the gardening world, testify 
that his experience of young gardeners is of the brightest. 
Taking the letters of criticism in the order in which they have 
appeared I may say that “A Philistine” (January 3rd) has utterly 
misapprehended the spirit of my r words. I must tell him, and others 
also who have made the same mistake, that I am as far from being 
hypochondriacal as light is from darkness ; that I am ever one of 
the cheeriest of men, a condition or state that I am more grateful to 
God and my parents for than for any other possession I have. Not 
only in “A Philistine’s” letter, but also in one or two others, I 
have noticed the flavour of a sneer running through them. This 
is a failing which every public writer should guard against more than 
almost any other. A sneer is a weak man’s argument ; and though 
to a young writer it may appear to add an element of smartness to 
his composition, he may rely upon it that others will not so consider 
it. This is a leaf out of the book of my own experience. I am 
too old to be moved by it, except to regret to see an otherwise good 
letter spoilt by it. 
In the same number of the Journal and under the same heading 
“ A Young Gardener ” has a letter which is the strongest proof (if 
proof were needed) of my charge as to “ skimming and slighting ” 
reading. The letter is superficial all through, though on reading 
between the lines one is conscious that, barring the superficiality, 
there is a good and worthy fellow at the back of the pen. To show 
the on-the-6urface style of reading of your correspondent, I need 
