JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 7, 1883. 
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478 
of course be yet determined, and some years must elapse before 
the seedlings that may be produced will flower. If, however, a 
satisfactory cross has been really effected between the two plants 
named the progeny may be confidently expected to yield some¬ 
thing of a remarkable and beautiful character. 
Many of the best Dendrobes are grown, D. Wardianum being 
in large numbers, between thirty and forty plants being in fine 
condition. The rich golden D. suavissimum is also represented 
by several good plants; one showing six spikes will be very hand¬ 
some in a short time. Fine varieties of D. primulinum, D. Devoni- 
anum, and D. Falconeri are all attractive in no ordinary degree. 
The handsome I). albo-sanguineum must not be omitted, its fine 
buff or creamy flowers, which are relieved by the heavy blotch of 
rich crimson purple on the lip, are amongst the most showy of 
the genus. At Selborne this plant is grown in the Cattleya house, 
as it enjoys a high temperature with abundance of moisture ; and 
when so treated it flowers well either in baskets or on blocks, and 
its blooms last in good condition for a long time. 
Cypripediums are numerous, many specimens of considerable 
size being grown, and including most of the finest species, 
varieties, and hybrids in cultivation. Most of Messrs. Yeitch’s 
hybrids are represented by good plants. The beautiful, distinct, 
and floriferous C. albo-purpureum (see page 473) is especially 
well grown, and well merits the high encomiums it has received. 
C. Stonei, with eight spikes of a good variety, is notable, as also 
is C. Druryi, a rather rare form, with yellowish flowers barred 
with brown. The snowy-white C. niveum is flowering well, with 
many others. 
Cattleyas .—The grand condition of these plants has already 
been referred to, and it now only remains to note that some of 
the finest varieties of C. Mossias, 0, Mendeli, C. gigas are included, 
the two former being particularly numerous and varied in colour 
and markings, the sepals and petals white blush or rosy-tinted, 
the lip of all shades, from the richest dark crimson to delicate 
blush, the throat streaked with gold. The handsome C. Warneri 
has three fine spikes, with a total of thirteen flowers ; the variety, 
too, is very good, the lip large, richly coloured, and beautifully 
fringed. This is one of the best of the Cattleyas when in good 
form, and deservedly bears the name of an ardent Orchid lover. 
Of the other tropical species Vandas are in strong force, the 
rare V. Dennisoniana being in fine condition. One good plant of 
V. suavis has three large spikes, V. coerulea being represented by 
some of the best varieties, though not in flower at the present 
time. The neat white Phalrenopsis tetraspis : the well-known 
favourites Aerides Fieldingi, A. Schroederi, the white Burlingtonia 
venusta, and Saccolabium ampullaceum are all flowering freely. 
Epidendrum Parkinsonianum (paleatum) with its large flowers, 
the curious three-lobed white prominent lip, is bearing several 
blooms on a block, Ccelogyne Massangeana with a spike of 
twenty-three flowers, Aerides japonica, Oncidium Harrisianum, 
Odontoglossum vexillarium, Oncidium citrosmum, and Trichopilia 
crispa, are only a few of the many fine plants in the collection. 
Utricularias .—These are exceedingly well grown at Selborne, 
and several handsome plants suspended from the roof of the 
hnu-es are very remarkable. One pair in particular, in baskets 
7 inches square, have thirty to forty racemes, or considerably over 
100 flowers each. Some smaller specimens of twelve to twenty 
racemes each. This is a beautiful plant when well grown, and it 
is by no means difficult to have in good condition with a little 
care. The temperature of any tropical Orchid house suits it, and 
suspended from the rafters they have a most pleasing effect, the 
lirge white flowers being relieve! by a blotch of orange on the 
lower lip of the corolla. U. Enlresii is similarly well grown, 
though the plants are smaller at present. 
COOL-IIOUSE ORCHIDS. 
Amongst these Odontoglossum Alexandra is very well and 
largely grown, the varieties being numerous, the flowers large 
and beautifully formed. Masdevallias are similarly numerous, 
M. ignea, M. Lindeni, and M. Harryana being represented by 
finely coloured varieties. The great curiosity amongst the species 
of this genus is M. Chimtera, which has several of its strangely 
coloured and peculiarly marked flowers, the tails of the sepals 
being 9 inches long. M. Shuttleworthi also, though of quite a 
different type to the above, is likely to be one of the most useful 
of the small-flowered species, its purple-dotted flowers being pro¬ 
duced so freely. Scores of others could be enumerated, but the 
above will suffice to indicate the extent and character of the 
collection. 
It is agreeable to place on record that, though this might be 
termed a garden devoted to a speciality, every other department 
is well done both inside and out, and. is alike creditable to 
Mr. Salter’s energy and care. 
It should be added that Orchids are not the only attraction at 
Selborne, for Chrysanthemums are well grown, and at Tooting 
and Brixton last year they were much admired. The white James 
Salter, named Lady Selborne, which has already been distributed 
and favourably received, originated as a sport in these Gardens a 
few years since, and has been honoured with several certificates. 
Melons and Cucumbers are successfully grown, and of the last- 
named Mr. Salter has a much-prized selection which he calls 
Selborne Rival, and is remarkable for its even shape, moderate 
size, and extreme prolificness.—L. Castle. 
DEAD BRANCHES DETRIMENTAL. 
I have been asked whether the statement lately going the rounds 
of the American papers that “ a dead branch on a tree makes almost 
as great a strain on the main plant for moisture as does a living 
one ” is accurate or not. The statement is coupled with another 
referring to its practical application in tree culture, the conclusion 
being that every dead branch “should be at once cut away.” 
Briefly it might be answered that the first statement is true in the 
main, and that, without any doubt at all, the conclusion is a wise 
one, and ought to be followed in practice. To explain this matter 
will take considerably more space, and in order to understand it 
we must go to vegetable physiology and inquire into the nature of 
the evaporation of water from plants. It was long supposed to be 
a physiological process, and was considered to be entirely different 
from ordinary physical evaporation. As long as this view was held 
the process was called transpiration, to distinguish it from the 
physical process. The breathing pores, the stomata, which occur 
in the epidermis of all leaves in great numbers, were supposed to 
be organs of transpiration, which was considered to be one of the 
most important functions of the leaf. 
Within a few years, however, our knowledge of these matters 
has been greatly increased, and we now know that the escape of 
water from the leaf does not differ in any way from the evaporation 
of water from any other moist surface. A leaf is a mass of cells, 
every one of which is gorged with watery matter, which in a dry 
atmosphere, as a matter of course, tends to escape. The epidermis, 
composed of dryish impervious cells, which entirely surrounds the 
watery cells of the leaf, would prevent almost completely the 
evaporation of water from the latter were it not for the breathing 
pores before mentioned. These pores are for permitting the free 
ingress and egress of gases, particularly oxygen, carbonic acid, and 
probably, also, ammonia. Now, when the pores are open for their 
legitimate purpose it happens that more or less water escapes if the 
air is dry. If the air happens to be very moist the loss of water 
through the breathing pores is very little, or even none at all. 
We may put it in this way : The leaf loses water simply because 
it is a watery s ructure; its epidermis is designed to prevent this 
loss, and the breathing pores with their power of opening and 
closing are for the same purpose. A leaf instead of being an organ 
of evaporation is actually a structure in which evaporation is quite 
successfully checked. Careful experiments made under my super¬ 
vision in the Iowa Agricultural College in 1880 by Miss Ida 
Twitchell, a graduate student, demonstrated that the evaporation 
from a moist piece of dead wood was exactly like that from a living 
leaf. Now, when a dead branch is large enough to keep continually 
moist in the interior it will in dry air constantly lose water by 
evaporation from its surface. This water so lost is taken from the 
tree, and must have been supplied directly or indirectly by the 
living portions. Moreover, it must be remembered that a living 
branch is well protected against loss of water through evaporation 
by the epidermis which covers all its surface when young, or the 
impervious corky bark which is always found on it when older. 
When a branch dies these protecting devices soon fall into decay, 
and the water, so carefully guarded by the living parts of the plant, 
is wasted by evaporation.— Processor C. E. Bessey (in the New 
York Tribune ). 
TULIP SHOW IN MANCHESTER. 
The annual Exhibition of the National Tulip Society was held 
on Saturday last at the Botanical Gardens, Old Trafford. The 
weather was gloriously fine, and there was a large attendance of the 
general public. The exhibitors, some thirty in number, came from 
all parts of the country, and the Show generally was a much better 
one than any of its predecessors. The flowers were stronger and in 
finer condition than we remember to have seen them for years, and 
the character of the refined blooms was far in advance of what we 
have been accustomed to, and were more nearly perfect than ha3 
been the case for some time past. The following is a list of the 
principal awards :—Five stands of twelve dissimilar Tulips, two 
feathered and two flamed in each class.—First, Rev. F. D. Horner, 
Kirkby Malzeard, near Ripon; second, Mr. W. Kitchen, Stockport; 
