88 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 28, 1881. 
beautifully in flower ; the individual flowers are not large, but 
when seen with several racemes of flowers fully expanded it is 
well worth growing. Some species of Epidendrum are always in 
flower, the most conspicuous at the present time being E. vitcl- 
linum ; amongst the others of less value may be mentioned E. 
aromaticum, E. virens, E. radiatum, and E. selligerum. 
Oncidium ampliatum is a good old kind ; the light yellow 
flowers are very telling, and show off to great advantage amongst 
the surrounding dark green foliage. O. sphacelatum and O. leu- 
cochilum both do their share towards making the house gay ; the 
same may be said of Lycaste aromatica and L. Deppei. Stan- 
hopea oculata and a species named grandiflora were in good 
condition. The latter may be pronounced to be a first-rate Orchid ; 
the flowers are large, pure white, or creamy white ; the peculiar¬ 
shaped leathery labelluin is faintly marked with crimson. Amongst 
the other plants in flower are Cymbidium pendulum, Sobralia 
macrantha, Mesospinidium vulcanicum, Odontoglossum pulchel- 
lum, 0. cordatum, and Masdevallia Harryana.—W. K. 
PORTRAITS OF NEW AND NOTABLE PLANTS. 
and shining as if varnished, in full contrast with the equally 
bright shining dark green foliage.’ And again—‘ Had this plant 
grown in Italy, it might well be supposed to have suggested the 
idea of the famous golden branch of the Cumtean Sybil to the 
Roman poet.’ Though more beautiful, in point of singular appear¬ 
ance it falls short of its only congener, M. Woollastoni, also a 
native of Madeira, which has larger and very pale flowers, sur¬ 
mounted by a columnar green style with five spreading and 
recurved arms, each one-half to nearly an inch long. With regard 
to this last species, it may be well to record here Mr. Lowe’s 
observation (Manual, p. 577) that the flowers in its native state 
are much more coloured than under cultivation, and the corolla is 
of a dull ochreous yellow streaked with dull red, giving it some¬ 
what of a purpurascent orange or lateriteous tint. M. aurea is a 
common plant on the sea cliffs of Madeira, and also ascends the 
ravines, rooting deeply into fissures of perpendicular dry sunny 
rocks. It was introduced into England in 1777 by Masson, a 
collector sent from Kew to South Africa, who visited Madeira en 
route to his destination. The specimen figured flowered at Kew 
in July and August of last year. The whole plant abounds in 
milky juice.”— (Ibid., t. 6556.) 
Kniphofia Uvakia yak. MAXIMA. (Nat. ord., Liliacem).— 
“ This is the plant, now widely spread in gardens under the name 
of Kniphofia, or Tritoma maxima or grandis. Though for garden 
purposes it has an individuality of its own, I cannot find any 
characters to separate it specifically from the well-known Red-hot 
Poker plant, Kuiphofia Uvaria, from which it differs by its more 
robust habit, longer and broader leaves, stouter scape and rather 
longer flowers, with more decidedly exserted stamens and style. 
The drawing was made from plants which flowered in the her¬ 
baceous ground at Kew in October, 1879, which we received from 
Max Leichtlin, Esq. It is a native of the Orange Free State, 
whence we possess dried wild specimens gathered by Mr. Thomas 
Cooper in 1862.”— (Bot. Mag., t. 6553.) 
Heciitia cordylinoides. (Nat. ord., Bromeliacem).—“ This 
fine new Bromeliad is just like the three Hechtias already known 
(H. glomerata, Gheisbreghtii, and argentea) in habit and leaf, but 
it differs from them entirely in inflorescence, its minute white 
flowers arranged in ample panicle, recalling Cordyline and Dasy- 
lirion more than any recognised Bromeliaceous type. The genus 
is exclusively Mexican, and represents in the northern half of the 
continent Dyckia of Brazil and the Argentine territory, from 
which it differs mainly by its polygamo-dioicous flowers. The 
drawing of H. cordylinoides was made from a plant that flowered 
in the Cactus house at Kew in the summer of 1880. We have 
had the plant some time, and have no precise record of its history, 
but there is in the British Museum a dried specimen of the same 
or a closely allied species gathered by Dr. Schott on the Cerro de 
Maxeana, in the province of Yucatan.”— (Ibid., t. 6554.) 
Begonia socotrana. (Nat. ord.. Begoniaceie).—“ A beautiful 
species, of which tubers were brought by Dr. I. B. Balfour from 
the dry and hot island of Socotra, in the Indian Ocean, off the 
coast of Arabia, one of the last places in the world in which a 
Begonia could have been expected to occur. From the geographical 
position of that island the affinity of this discovery may be con¬ 
jectured to be either Asiatic or African, and, upon the whole, 
though referable to none of the sixty sections of the genus founded 
by Klotzsch and A. de Candolle, it must, I think, be placed in the 
African one of Augustia, from the characters of which it differs 
chiefly in the male perianth having four segments, in the shorter 
filaments, rounded top of the anther, in the six lobes of the female 
perianth (instead of five), and the untwisted arms of the style— 
characters all of which, except the last, occur in the Natal B. gera- 
nioides, to which B. socotrana is unquestionably closely allied. 
This is only one of the many most interesting plants brought by 
Dr. I. B. Balfour from an island which he alone has had the good 
fortune to explore, and the publication of the results of which 
exploration are awaited with impatience by botanists no less than 
horticulturists. The Royal Gardens are indebted to Dr. Balfour 
for tubers, which he liberally presented to that institution in April, 
and which flowered in December, a season when such a plant is 
doubly welcome to the cultivator, as the similar Begonias of the 
Andes, which make so magnificent a show in the conservatory 
during the summer and autumn months, are then all long past 
flowering. It is easily propagated by its tubers, and as the Kew 
plants continued in flower for two months in a warm conservatory, 
it will doubtless prove a great favourite.”— (Ibid., t. 6555.) 
Mussciiia aurea. (Nat. ord., Campanulem).—“This is the 
most beautiful of the indigenous plants of Madeira, of which Mr. 
Lowe, in his Manual of the Flora of that island, says— ; Nothing 
can exceed the singularity and splendour of a fine panicle as it 
occurs on its native rocks ; almost wholly of a rich golden-yellow, 
DARDEN GOTHS AND FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
In a peculiar mixture of gospel and gush a contemporary in¬ 
forms us that all the horticultural papers, save one, have become 
“advocates of weeds,” and that it is “our bounden duty to warn 
the public against these Goths of the garden, because they are 
preachers of mortification and aim at the revival of flagellation 
in the world of taste and beauty.” Very neat that; nothing ver¬ 
bose about it, but pithy, perspicuous, and clear. How the florists 
will like it, practical men that they are, and haters of nonsense ! 
In future there must be no discussion on flowers in the garden¬ 
ing press. Everything is settled by our infallible dictator in his 
little “ world of taste and beauty.” Editors, be careful. If a 
writer thinks a blue flower is prettier than a red one it is your 
opinion, not the writer’s, and you are the “ advocates and ex¬ 
ponents of blue.” This is very serious, and you will become 
“ preachers of mortification,” for, of course, what your correspon¬ 
dent may consider right the oracle will rule wrong ; it is his 
“ bounden duty ” to do so. 
I would not have you, Mr. Editor, distinguished as a florists’ 
nurse ; but even at the risk of this I think you will permit me to 
say a word in favour of florists’ flowers, just as you have per¬ 
mitted others to extol them. Nay, you cannot be an enemy of 
these flowers, for have you not prepared a manual upon them, which 
has been more largely circulated than any work of the kind in our 
language ? But much as I love these flowers I decidedly refuse to 
go frantic if some individual prefers a single Rose to a double one ; 
yet for the so-called florists’ flowers I claim pre-eminence. They 
are beautiful in themselves, in their colours, markings, symmetry. 
They to my mind represent the tractability of Nature, which is 
guided to an end by the act of man. They remind me of worthy 
men of the past—devoted, persevering students of Nature, who 
have laboured long in the cause they loved, and have written their 
names in living colours and on tablets which, if fragile in cha¬ 
racter, are durable, and if old are yet new every summer. Such 
associations as these impart a charm to the flowers that enhances 
their value. I have grown them long and exhibited them, even 
from youth upwards to the time of the “ sere and yellow leaf,” 
and I hope to love and grow them to the end. What have we 
amongst flowers more magnificent than the Rose, more stately 
than the Hollyhock, more noble than the Dahlia, more charming 
than the Carnation, more refined than the Auricula, more brilliant 
and varied than the Pelargonium ? and there are others in their 
way as beautiful as these. It is my experience that whenever 
these flowers are seen in their best condition they are admired 
greatly by the majority who inspect them. I wish that more would 
become cultivators as well as admirers. The occupation is as 
healthy as it is delightful, and not the less so because the pleasure 
is not a selfish one. Every true florist desires others to emulate 
him and excel him if they can : hence the societies that are 
established, and which deserve support and success. A wider 
brotherhood is hoped for and worked for, and if half the inha¬ 
bitants of this island were enrolled in the florists’ ranks the re¬ 
sults, I am convinced, would be distinctly and decidedly beneficial. 
I do not ask you to endorse all that I say, Mr. Editor ; nor 
desire your correspondent “ Single-handed ” to cease his ar¬ 
dency for his wildings. The bomb he has thrown in the camp 
and caused such consternation will do no real harm to earnest 
men. His flashes of fancy may be too much for the unstable, and 
may lead to temporary mental derangement of those of ultra 
sanguine temperament; but the effect on the great body of cul- 
