570 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 25, 1884. 
Council of the Royal Botanical Society of Manchester. A meeting of the 
Committee of both Societies will be hehl by permission in the conserva- 
toi-y at Soutli Kensington on Tuesday, January 13th, immediately after 
the Tarious Committees have completed their work. The principal busi¬ 
ness will be to pass the rules for exhibitors, and to arrange and sanction 
the printing of schedules for 1885. 
-- A WEiTEE in an American paper thus advocates the employment 
of Wood Ashes foe Feuit Teees :—“ My orchards cover some twenty 
acres. One of a little less than two acres has been kept under the plough 
and highly enriched ever since the trees were planted in the autumn of 
1843 to the present time. Those trees have grown to be very large, 
though I have taken pains to keep them in hand by heading in ; but some 
of them have passed maturity and are going to their decay. But trees of 
the same kind that were set in grass land, well cultivated for the first few 
years, but after the first ten j^ears perhaps were only cultivated occasion¬ 
ally, and some of them not at all, have done better. This has been 
brought about by an annual and biennial top-dressing. The best top' 
dressing I have applied to the Apple is wood ashes and bone. Stable 
manure seems to promote growth rather than fruit-bearing; but bone and 
ashes applied together seem to develops the fruit-buds and growth of the 
fruit and to keep the trees, not in very luxuriant growth, but in a good 
healthy growth. Consequently I fully agree with the Secretary of the 
Board of Agriculture of Connecticut that the best mode for the ordinary 
farmer who has large orchards and does not wish to keep them under the 
plough is to give the trees an annual or biennial top-dressing. A bushel 
of ashes would not be too much for a tree of ordinary size. You will also 
find that where you put on an occasional top-dressing, as ashes, the grass 
is more luxitriant than on the outside.” 
- The Annual Report of the Meteopolitan Public Gaeden 
Association gives full particulars as to the extent, annual cost, and value 
of the parks and gardens and open spaces in London, and from a long 
list we select the following as the most important :—Hyde Park 390 acres, 
St. James’s Park 83 acres. Green Park 71 acres, total annual cost £39,550; 
Kensington Gardens 310 acres, annual cost £6117; Regent’s Park 400 
acres, annual cost £9888 ; Finsbury Park 115 acres, annual cost £3765 ; 
Battersea Park 250 acres, annual cost £7522 ; Bushey Park 1100 acres, 
annual cost £3043 ; Hampton Court Gardens, annual cost, £2226; Kew 
Gardens 270 acres, annual cost £21,436 ; Richmond Park 2258 acres, 
annual cost £5719; Clapham Common 220 acres, cost of purchase 
£22,711, annual cost £1674; Wandsworth Common 160 acres, annual 
cost £800 ; Wimbledon Common 1000 acres, annual cost £2400 ; Barnes 
Common 100 acres, annual cost £200; Hampstead Heath 240 acres, 
annual cost £681; Thames Embankment Gardens 13 acres, annual cost 
£1731; Southwark Par’d 63 acres, annual cost £1966; Kennington Park) 
annual cost, £1464; Greenwich Park 174 acres, annual cost £2132; 
Epping Forest 5348 acres, cost of purchase £257,000. 
- A eemaekable wood, known as Mountain Mahogany, grows in 
Nevada, which is thus described by a correspondent of an American 
paper :—“ The trees do not grow large. A tree with a trunk a foot in 
diameter is much above the average. When dry the wood is about as hard 
as Boxwood, and being of very fine grain might, no doubt, be used for the 
same purposes. It is of a rich red colour and very heavy. When well 
seasoned it would be a fine material for the wood-carver. In the early 
days it was used for making boxes for shafting, and in a few instances for 
shoes and dies in a qnartz battery. Used as a fuel it creates an intense 
heat. It burns with a blaze as long as wood would last, and is then found 
(almost unchanged in form) converted to a charcoal that lasts about twice 
aS long as ordinary wood. For fuel it sells much higher than any kind of 
wood ; indeed, a cord of it always brings the same price as a ton of coal. 
The only objection to it is that it creates such an intense heat as to burn 
out stoves more rapidly than any kind of coal, however bad.” 
- Peofessoe W. T. Dyer calls attention in Nature to 
important discovery with regard to the eepeoduction of Ferns, from 
which it appears that Mr. E. T. Druery has observed a previously 
unnoticed mode of reproduction in the case of Athyrium Filix-fcemina 
var. clarissima. He states that “ In this Fern the sporangia do not follow 
their ordinary course of development, but, assuming a more vegetative 
character, develops more or less well-defined prothallia, which, according 
to Mr. Druery’s observations, ultimately bear archegonia and antheridia. 
From these adventitious prothallia the production of seedling Ferns of a 
new generation has been observed to take place in a perfectly normal 
way.” Mr. Bower has followed up this by observations on Polystichum 
angulare var. pulcherrima, in which the apex of the pinnules grow out 
into an irregular prothallium, upon which the antheridia and archegonia 
have also been discovered. To this phenomenon the term of apospory 
is given, and the following dates are given by Professor Dyer as 
showing the advance in a knowledge of the reproduction of Ferns :— 
“ 1597, Gcrarde observed seedling plants near parents ; 1648, Cassius, 
sporangia; 1669, Coles, spores; 1686, Ray, hygroscopic movements of 
sporangia ; 1715, Morison raised seedlings from spores; 1788, Ehrhart, 
prothallium; 1789, Lindsay, germination of spores; 1827, Kaulfuss, 
development of prothallium ; 1844, Niigeli, antheridia; 1846, Suminski^ 
archegonia; 1874, Farlow, apogamy; and in 1884 Druery observed 
apospory. 
-Part 17 of the Illustrated Dictionary of Gaedenino 
(L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand), continues the subjects from Cunonia to 
Dahlia, with several illustrations of Cyclamens, Cypripediums, and other 
plants. Under Dahlia is a figure of D. Juarezi, which could scarcely be 
recognised if the name were not given with it. 
NOTES ON ORCHIDS. 
Calanthes. —It is a great mistake to have these in flower in 
early autumn, for they are much more useful about Christmas. 
The closing days of the year and the first month of the next are 
without doubt the worst time for the production of flowers in 
large quantities, hence the value of those plants that flower 
freely at that time. The flower spikes on the whole of our plants 
are now visible, and the foliage showing signs of decay, although 
on the latest plants much of the foliage is still fresh and green. 
It is a great mistake to discontinue tbc supply of water to the 
roots of the plants before the foliage has naturally died and 
several of the flowers expanded on the spike. When plants are 
judiciously supplied with water the roots are still active, and to 
keep the soil dust dry about them, or to remove the foliage pre¬ 
maturely because it appears somewhat unsightly, is one of the 
greatest evils that can be practised in the cultivation of these 
Orchids. The destruction of the roots in this stage results in 
the imperfect development of the pseudo-bulbs, and consequently 
a decrease in their size another season. Water must be care¬ 
fully supplied, but the soil should never be allowed to become 
destitute of moisture until the foliage has died. Not only does 
premature ripening affect the development of the pseudo-bulbs, 
but the giant flower spikes drain them for their support to a 
much greater extent than would have been the case had the roots 
been retained until they had completed their work. Upon close 
examination it will be found that the young growth that issues 
from two-year-old pseudo-bulbs, or even the tops of large pseudo¬ 
bulbs, emits roots very much sooner than those growths from large 
perfectly developed ones. The reason for this is not far to seek, 
for when the young growth has drained all the supply of food at 
command it is brought to a standstill, and the emission of roots 
is a necessity for its further development. In the first instance, 
the young gi’owths from these pseudo-bulbs, or even small ones, 
appear equally as strong as from those of a much larger size, 
and although they form roots earlier for their own support, they 
never make such large pseudo-bulbs. Under these circumstances, 
if observations are rightly formed, it is of the utmost importance 
that eveiy care be taken of the roots and foliage as long as pos¬ 
sible in order to store up the requisite food for future use. 
Dendeobiums. —What a marked difference there is between 
the flowering qualities of those that are thoroughly developed in 
their last stages and those that are prematurely brought to a stand¬ 
still and ripened. Quick development and hasty ripening can¬ 
not be too strongly condemned. If the plants are to flower pro¬ 
fusely, and have large well coloured blooms, they must be 
gradually developed under the influence of light, sunshine, and 
air if they are to flower from every alternate node along the 
stem of such varieties as D, crassinode, D. Wardianum, and 
others of similar growth and deciduous habits. Not unfre- 
quently, when the growth has been made under the most suitable 
conditions and well matured afterwards, such varieties as those 
alluded to will commence to produce their flowers freely while 
the foliage is still green and fresh upon them, and before they 
are deciduous, flower buds will be visible from every joint. I do 
not believe in growing these plants and maturing them and then 
allowing them to flower without removal from a warm structure, 
for this would rob them of their season of rest, which would tell 
against them the following season. Their removal from a heated 
to a cool house should be gradual and in accordance with their 
stage of development. This can be accomplished even after the 
