812 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 28, 1892. 
which insects which visit the flowers alight. In all probability 
it is the insect’s abdomen which comes in contact with the tip 
of the column, as the action can easily be imitated artificially. 
But in the case of the male flower a very curious mechanism 
comes into play. The stipes of the pollinium are tightly strained 
around the rostellum, but as soon as the sensitive filament is 
touched the pollinium is liberated and ejected from the flower 
by its own elasticity. During its short flight it not only 
straightens itself, but curls up into a spiral in the reverse 
direction, tightly clasping the anther-case, but leaving the viscid 
disc exposed, and this becomes tightly glued to the body of the 
insect. The pollen is now wrapped up in the anther-case, but 
the filament is hygrometric, and being exposed to the air it soon 
dries and straightens itself, when the anther-case, having served 
its purpose, falls away. 
Meantime the insect will have visited other flowers, and if one 
of these is a female the pollen would come in contact with the 
viscid stigma, between its pair of fleshy wings, and thus ferti¬ 
lisation is effected. In the early morning these plants exhale a 
most powerful perfume, which serves to attract the insects. And 
now we may see the curious way in which the different structure 
of the male flower of the section Heteranthac comes into play. 
In the section Eucycnoches the lip of the male is ovate, fleshy, 
and immoveable (as in the females of the entire genus), so that it 
is by the movements of the insect that its body comes into contact 
with the apex of the column. But in the flowers of section 
Heteranthae the lip is reduced to a small round disc with radiating 
teeth, acid instead of being immoveable it is attached by a slender 
hinge. As soon as the insect alights its weight depresses the hinge, 
and its body comes in contact with the apex of the column with 
some force, invariably liberating the pollinium. It is marvellous 
how perfect all these adaptations are, and it has been a work of 
the greatest possible interest to me to trace their action and use.— 
{Garden and Forest.) 
OnCIDIUM MAR.SHAI.LIANa’M. 
The enclosed photograph represents a very fine spike of the 
above Orchid, 57 inches long, 38 wide, and bearing 186 blooms 
2 inches deep and If broad. The flowers have been expanded 
during the past four weeks in the small but beautiful gardens of 
S. Symington, Esq., The Brooklands, Market Harborough. The 
plant is growing upon a piece of thin board on which it was imported 
about two years ago, from, I believe, the neighbourhood of the 
Panama Canal. Last year it bo*'e a fine spike, but the present is 
much the finest. Mr. H. Dunkley, the able gardener, is well 
known in the Midlands as one of the most successful growers and 
exhinitors of Chrysanthemums, and judging from the shore time 
Orchids have been cultivated at The Brooklands they will also be in 
the front ranks. A visit to The Brooklands is always a pleasure, 
one is we'comed so heartily by Mr. Symington, who is a thorough 
horticulturist, and is ably seconded by his gardener. At the 
time of my visit the houses were very gay with early flowering 
plants. In a cold frame the Chrysanthemums looked as if they 
w'ould be readv to hold their own in the autumn. —John Gregory, 
llasslbrook, Northamjyton. 
[Undoubtedly a very fine spike, but the photograph is not 
suitable for preparing an engraving.] 
SIXTY YEARS OF HORTICULTURAL PROGRESS 
(1760—1820). 
{Continued from j)o^e 20.) 
The weather of our islands seems to be a refreshing topic, 
which many people discuss day after day without any sense of 
weariness. A frequent matter of debate is, whether the winters 
were formerly colder and longer than at present. There is, I should 
say, little doubt that they were, when much of land of Britain 
was forest and marsh. Even as recently as a hundred years ago, 
sundry statements we read tell of very sharp winters ; and gardeners 
in the reign of George III. seem frequently to have been sufferers 
by froJs and cold winds. One thing to be remembered, however, 
is that their methods of protecting plants of tender habit during 
the winter were imperfect. It was a usual plan to shield many 
things ill the open ground with mats or other coverings which ought 
to have been placed in houses, such screens often failing to fulfil 
their object. Then plants were also frequently put into frames 
heated by manure, the temperature of which was not tested by a 
thermometer, so at times they were too hot, and then, perhaps, 
suddenly cooled by the admission of the outer air. Hence someone 
contrived as a remedy the “adjusting bottomed frame,’’ which was 
deep, and had a bottom made of perforated boards, the pots or 
plants being raised or lowered at pleasure by means of a pinion and 
screw. In order to cool the plants, if needful, they we’e brought 
nearer to the glass. One difficulty with this was the regulation of 
the moisture, and an improvement upon it was made by John 
Nairn ; but it was more expensive, having a brickwork basement, 
an apparatus for shifting which was more readily adjusted, and, 
discarding dung and bark, he heated it by tubes which carried steam 
round the outside. M'Phail’s frame was another improvement 
which many gardeners adopted about the end of last century, as the 
heat it yielded was equable with proper management. Warmth was 
supplied by dung, perforated flues being constructed in the base¬ 
ment, the steam Lorn which heated the earih in the centre of each 
light. 
Thomas Hill, alias “ Didymus Mountain,” writing on gardening 
about 1560, describes flower pots of earthenware as well known 
then. It would seem the common pot then used widened instead 
of narrowing towards the bottom, and they had probably slits in 
the sides to admit or reject water. Such pots, under the name of 
Chinese pots, were still patronised by some in the reign of 
George III.; also a French make, in which, instead of a central 
hole, the bo^^tom was pierced with several fine holes ; but these 
were constantly getting clogged, and did not obtain any more 
favour than the square flower pot introduced from Paris, which 
was supposed to economise space on stands and shelves. Another 
article that was introduced from Italy was the propagating pot, of 
tinned iron or earthenware ; this was hung upon a branch, and a 
shoot ot some tree or shrub placed in the slit along the side of the 
pot. It was said to be a Chinese plan originally, and used for 
propagating Camellias, Banksias, &c. The Georgian gardeners 
were very willing to adopt improvements suggested by their conti¬ 
nental neighbours, such as the Italian watering pot, of earthen¬ 
ware instead of metal, supposed to avoid any contamination of the 
water ; and a French one, provided with a zig-zag spout, by which 
the force of the flow was lessened, while the rose was discarded. 
I must say a good word here for the sometimes calumniated 
monarch, George III. ; he was friendly to horticulture, and did more 
than a little to help it forward, though the wars in which he engaged 
had an evil influence. Amongst other things to his credit was his 
employment of a man named Masson, who went at his expense on 
several voyages to Africa, and amongst the new plants he brought 
home were a number of Heaths. Miller knew very few sorts, and 
none of the Cape species ; but more than 250 Heaths are reckoned 
to have been introduced by the end of that century. At first, 
however, there was a prejudice against them, from the idea that 
their culture was difficult. It seems that nurserymen frequently 
kept them at too high a 'temperature, and failed to keep them 
regularly watered ; also, they used peat earth without a due admix¬ 
ture of sand. These mistakes were rectified, and the best method 
of propagating Heaths pointed out from experiments made at 
Hammersmith Nursery. There they tried the plan of taking off 
the tips of the fresh shoots in June, and planted them in white 
sand ; before that it was customary to take large cuttings from the 
ripened wood. Seeds were often sent from the Cape, which, 
reaching England in winter, were sown by gardeners during the 
spring ; but Cushing advised sowing in September, because spring 
seedlings seemed to bear the winter badly. American peat earth 
shrubs—as for instance the Magnolia, Azalea, Andromeda, and 
Rhododendron—were at this time coming prominently into notice. 
A very successful cultivator was Thomas Jenkens. His ground, of 
about 18 acres, now forms the Inner Circle of the Regent’s Park, 
a good part of it being appropriately occupied by the gardens of 
the Royal Botanic Society. Abercrombie and others showed how 
important it was to imitate closely the American peat by an arti¬ 
ficial composition suited to their habits, and they recommended 
increasing these plants by grafting or inarching, as being more 
expeditious than layering or growing from seed. American shrubs 
now began to be arranged in gardens by themselves at Caen Wood, 
Hampstead, and elsewhere. Rhododendrons and Azaleas were 
planted in thin lines, along the edge of copses, under shelter of 
trees, and it was found that they shed their seeds readily, and 
young plants sprung up without any particular attention being 
given. 
In 1786 the first seeds of the white variety of Beet, now 
largely grown under the name of Mangolds, were sent to England 
by Mr. B. Parkins. For a long time it continued to bear the full 
German name of Mangel-vurzel. Sir Richard Jebb, who received 
them, placed them before the Society of Arts, and so they were 
distributed amongst some London gardeners. But Sir W. 
Jerningham and Sir M. Martin, of the county of Norfolk, were 
pioneers in its cultivation on an extensive scale. Dr. Lettsom, who 
had a physic garden and arboretum at Camberwell, wrote a small 
pamphlet in its commendation. There was a movement about 
1787 for the increased cultivation of the Jerusalem Artichoke, it 
having been much commended as a vegetable, though we are told 
that the average Londoner regarded this wdth dislike. Mr. Bartley 
showed that this vegetable muhipl-ed fast, and that it would 
