462 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 12, 1884. 
here grown will) these varieties in a winter night temperature of 60°. 
C. intermedia differs from the majority of these plants in not flower¬ 
ing from mature pseudo-bulbs. It commences its growth in early 
spring and flowers directly the growths are completed. Ihe flowers, 
which number five or six upon each strong pseudo-bulb, will last in 
good condition for nearly a month in a cool moderately dry atmosphere. 
After flowering roots are produced, and in due time another set of 
growths are made, but from these no flowers are produced. It may 
be supposed that this Cattleya does not need particular attention in 
ripening or a lengthened season of rest when the flowers are produced 
upon soft immature pseudo-bulbs. This is not the case, for its 
autumn growth must be well ripened, and a good season of complete 
repose is as essential to this as any other Cattleya. When making 
its growth in spring it should have abundance of light and a fair 
circulation of air to solidify the growth as it is being made, and the 
results are fine large flowers of good colour and substance. This 
variety does wonderfully well in comparatively small pots, and will 
also succeed on a block with a little moss, only more attention is 
needed in watering, therefore pot culture is preferred. When grown 
in pots a good per-centage of charcoal used in lumps should be 
employed amongst the moss and peat used for potting, as the roots 
like something to which they can cling. 
Dendrobium Parishii. —After the majority of spring-flowering 
Dendrobes are over this comes in most useful, and can be had in good 
condition over a lengthened period by retarding it in a cool house until 
later in the season before introducing it into heat. A good plant 
well flowered is very conspicuous. The pseudo-bulbs should be made 
under the influence of light, and well ripened, to be followed with a 
long season of rest. This Dendrobium will do well in either a pot or 
basket ; the latter w T e prefer to grow it in, because its roots have a 
tendency to get out of the basket into the atmosphere. In which¬ 
ever it may be grown it does not require much material to root in, 
and is much better grown in all sphagnum and crocks than v 7 ith an 
admixture of peat. I have several times potted it in a mixture of 
both, but have never been able to find any roots in the peat, but the 
roots cling tenaciously to pieces of pot and charcoal. It would be 
interesting to know if there are two varieties of this Dendrobe, the 
one with much shorter pseudo-bulbs than the other. I have seen 
pflants v T ith stout stems fully 14 inches in length, while the variety I 
have only makes them 6 or 7 inches long. The plants in question are 
not v T eak, because some of the pseudo-bulbs were sufficiently strong 
to produce two growths each last year. As well as I can remember 
there is no perceptible difference in the colour of the flowers, unless 
in the variety I possess they are a little paler in colour. 
Dendrobium pulchellum. • — flhis charming miniature-growing 
variety should have a place in all gardens where Dendrobes are 
appreciated. It is indeed a gem wdien covered w T ith its large beauti¬ 
fully fringed D. Devonianum-like flowers. It is best grown in a 
basket with moss and lumps of charcoal, and when once established 
it should not be disturbed, for it loves to be let alone. When esta¬ 
blished in a small quantity of rootiDg material, and the letting-alone 
principle adopted, it will grow and spread until it becomes one mass 
all over the basket. I had three or four small pieces given me eight 
years ago which were planted in a small basket made of hazel; the 
basket has been decayed several years, and is only held together by the 
mass of pseudo-bulbs and roots the plant has made. During the 
whole of this time nothing has been done to the plant except placing 
a little living sphagnum amongst its roots annually after flowering. 
AVhile growing this little Dendrobe requires stove heat, and the 
moist atmosphere of a genial plant stove suits it admirably. It 
should be well syringed and abundantly watered until growth is com¬ 
pleted. A long rest after its pseudo-bulbs are ripe in a cool house, 
giving only sufficient water to prevent their shrivelling, is the secret 
of growing and flowering it well. It is evergreen, and its flowers 
are not serviceable for cutting unless they are wired, but when in 
flower the plant is very ornamental and attractive.—W. B. L. 
THOUGHTS ON CURRENT TOPICS. 
Possibly there was never an article written, however excellent 
it may have been, that met the entire approval of everybody 
interested in the subject of it. There were some good articles 
in the Journal last week, the perusal of which gave rise to a few 
thoughts that were jotted down in writing. These are placed for 
what they are worth at the disposal of the Editor, and even at 
the risk of the thinker getting castigated for his pains. 
Worthy of its position is the article on espalier Apple trees, 
contributed by a gardener who has evidently proved their worth. 
By no other method of culture or training can so much fruit be 
had off the same extent of ground as on the trees in question. 
But I canuot think it necessary for spurs to be anything like a 
foot long for bearing grand crops of Apples. If a person cannot 
produce all the blossom that is needed for as heavy a crop of 
fruit as the trees can safely carry on spurs of half that length, 
he will not win a medal for the successful management of fruit 
trees. The height of espaliers named, 6 feet 6 inches, is just 
what espaliers ought to be ; and when I see lines of wires 4 feet 
high I conclude there is a great waste of space, for the foot and 
a half higher in a length of even 50 yards must give some addi¬ 
tional bushels of fruit without the trees occupying any more 
ground. The transformation of ordinary espaliers into palmette 
venders is not a bad notion. Some trees might, no doubt, be 
benefited by the change; but those on the old style that are 
well furnished and bearing freely I would leave alone, and so, 
perhaps would Mr. Luckhurst. I am inclined to think the trans¬ 
formation plan looks just a little better on paper than it would 
if carried out in the garden, at least by some persons and in the 
case of some trees; and I cannot clearly see how the space 
between two trees could be occupied after some feet had been cut 
from the larger branches and the resulting growths trained verti¬ 
cally. Can your correspondent assist me in thinking this matter 
out? 
Vines come in for a large share of attention. Syringing, 
stopping, bleeding, and fruit-thinning do not appear to be settled 
topics. I think, on the matter of thinning, “ J. J. ’ is right, and 
that with very few exceptions indeed the tying-up of the 
shoulders of bunches of Grapes is a mistake. It makes the 
bunches look larger it is true, and the crop to appear heavier 
than it really is. This gees for something in these days of 
“ keeping up appearances ” in the vinery ; but w'hen the Grapes 
are off the Vines they are no better looking, if as good, by the 
spreading-out to which the shoulders have been subjected. 
Then as to syringing during the flowering period. I do not 
think the viscid exudation on Muscats is easily washed off by a 
“ gentle syringing.” The fluid is removed better by a sharp 
shaking. I think far more Grapes are set without syringing the 
flowers than by the adoption of that practice; at the same time, 
as an occasional shower does not impede the setting of Grapes 
in the open air, an occasional judicious syringing might not be 
injurious under glass, while the “ baking process ”—dry roots 
and a dry atmosphere—is decidedly prejudicial to the setting 
and swelling of the fruit. It is not everybody, however, who 
can set Grapes with the aid of the syringe so well as “ C., Dorset ,” 
appears to do, and I think it very possible that there are both 
gardeners and amateurs wbo, if they imitated this method, might 
be disappointed. 
Next as to Vines bleeding. Mr. Waiting appears to write 
rather dogmatically on this matter. “ Water is the chief cause 
of bleeding” is the latest dictum. When Vines are already 
bleeding copious supplies of water will increase the flow and 
escape of sap, or water, but how anything done after an occur¬ 
rence can be the cause of that occurrence I cannot quite see ; 
indeed the matter is beyond my thinking powers entirely, but I 
may be dull. Let the wood of Vines be ripened completely, also 
the pruning be done early, and we shall hear little of bleeding 
Vines even if they are watered freely. If water is the cause of 
the evil, if it is an evil, it is, I think, the water in immature 
wood. What think other's ? 
I THINK “ Non-Believer” is inclined to be a little hypercritical 
on the subject of shortening Vine canes. There is nothing prac¬ 
tically irreconcilable between the teaching of the late Mr. 
Pearson and that of “A Kitchen Gardener." Neither of these 
cultivators would presumably shorten all the rods at an uniform 
height of 8 or 9 feet in one case, or 12 feet in the other. It is 
quite as likely that the former gentleman if he were alive would 
allow some rods to have a bearing length of 12 feet, and that the 
latter would shorten others to less than 7 or 8 feet. Uniformity 
in this respect is out of the question. I have seen many rods 
left 20 feet long for bearing upwards of thirty years ago, but 
they were not weak ; the weak ones were shortened then as now, 
and I think wisely ; and I have seen not a few Vines, especially 
those newly planted, practically ruined by the canes having been 
left too long the first season. 
My thoughts pass from the prince of fruits to the queen of 
flowers—Roses. “ J. A. B." appears to have been singularly 
unfortunate with the beautiful and free Reine Marie Henriette. 
I have had the pleasure of seeing many examples of this Rose, 
and their condition has led me to think it one of the greatest 
acquisitions of recent years I have seen it growing in the same 
border with Cheshunt Hybrid, growing as strongly and flowering 
as freely as that valuable Rose, but surpassing it in substance of 
