May 21 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
409 
drainage be arranged in good working order, as the plant require! 
a liberal supply of water during the whole season. 
Masdevallia Aemini. 
An excellent specimen of this beautiful little Masdevallia was 
shown by Sir Trevor Lawrence recently at one of the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society’s meetings, and it was greatly admired. The 
colour is ' remarkably rich and distinct from all others of the 
genus. 
Messrs. J. Yeitch & Sons, Chelsea, in their monograph of the 
Masdevallias, give the following description and note : — 
“Leaves oblong-lanceolate, Ij-inch long, narrowed below into a 
somewhat slender petiole as long as the b'ade. Scapes slender, 
longer than the leaves, one-flowered. Perianth tube short, whitish ; 
to William the Conqueror, and his name is perpetuated in rather a 
singular manner, for the guide book tells us that the largest barrel 
in the principal ale cellar is named after him. It holds 1300 
gallons, and twelve persons are said to have dined in it at one time. 
The domain passed into the De Ros family by mari’iage in 
1247, but was forfeited during the wars of the Rcses to Lord 
Hastings. It was restored, however, about twenty years after¬ 
wards, and subsequently passed, again by marriage, to Sir Robert 
de Manners. Sir Thomas Manners was created first Earl of 
Rutland by Henry VIII. in 1526, and the ninth earl was elevated 
to the dukedom by Queen Anne. The present Duke, the seventh, 
so long known as Lord John Manners, succeeded his brother, who 
died in 1888, and thus is the present linked ^with the past over 
a period of 700 years. 
Fig. 74.—MASDEVALLIA AEMINI. 
free portion of sepals crimson-purple, the dorsal one sub-orbicular, 
concave; the lateral two broadly oval-oblong, nearly flat, and 
contracted to filiform, yellowish tails 1-2 inches long. Petals 
linear-oblong, toothed at the apex, white ; lip oblong, reflexed at 
the tip, where there is a blackish purple warty blotch. First dis¬ 
covered on the Eastern Cordillera of New Granada, in the 
Pamplona district, more than thirty years ago, by Schlim, but 
dedicated by the late Professor Reichenbach to his friend Hermann 
Wagener, by latinising the Christian name. It appears to have 
been first introduced into European gardens by Messrs. Sander 
and Co. of St. Albans in 1882.” 
EELVOIR IN MAY. 
Belvoir Castle is famous for the grandeur of its prsition, 
its ancient foundation, and as the ancestral home of a long line of 
nobles—nine earls and seven dukes—also for its remarkably 
sheltered pleasure grounds and the beautiful flowery slopes in May. 
The first castle was built by Robert de Todeni, standard bearer 
So much for history epitomised, and now we pass to the flowery 
slopes. The character of the pleasant grounds of Belvoir is 
admirably described in the following extract from Mr. Ellers’ work 
inserted in “ Allen’s Guide,” * as revised and in part rewritten by 
Mr. J. Potter Brisco, F.R.H.S.—“ Below the slope to the west of 
the castle there is a garden called ‘ the Duke’s,’ effectually secluded 
from view when in the castle and on every other point. A flight 
of steps with massive balustrades conducts to a kind of wilderness 
intersected by narrow footpaths, which lead to various portions of 
the desmesne below the now green terraces. Within a few hundred 
yards of the above mentioned garden is another still more secluded. 
The charm of these gardens consists not so much in their artificial 
embellishments or the beauty or variety of the flowers as in their 
situation. The visitor, passing through narrow avenues of lofty 
trees, winding about on the side of the hill, unexpectedly emerges 
upon a little cleared spot traversed by gravel walks and glow'ing 
with gay flowers. The walks on the side of this hill have some¬ 
thing of a labyrinthal character, and without a guide the stranger 
♦ R. Alien & Sou, Nottingham. 
