August 3, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
95 
Dr. Moore ; the same good work is carried on and kept up to date by 
hia son, the present curator, iono publico, and how much the public 
avail themselves of the privilege statistics show by the ever-increasing 
number of visitors, though you may be stopped by the official-looking 
janitor at the gates and bid inscribe your name in the book. This time 
I slipped in unchallenged, but was immediately arrested by a fine 
Paulownia imperialis with a grand timber-like trunk ; this would be 
worthy of a special visit when in flower, but I fear that, as in England, 
spring frosts are its bete noir. 
Hunting up Mr. Moore’s lieutenant, whom I had met a few hours 
previously at the Koyal Horticultural Society’s Summer Show arranging 
one of those fine groups which so materially aid our exhibitions, we 
enter the new Palm house, 100 feet long, 60 feet wide, 66 feet high, 
well furnished with fine specimens. One notable example of the Sago 
Palm sweeps up to the roof, and as I look up the 66 feet, Mr. Pope looks 
back on forty years and speaks of the time he had carried it himself from 
one house to another. Very noble, too, is a giant Bamboo rivalling the 
Palm in height; here also are the Browneas, not now in their gorgeous 
inflorescence. The abrupt ending of this house in a heavy wall is not 
a pleasing coup d'aU, but Begonias and the Monstera are at home on it 
and Tradescantia very much so. 
From here we enter the Fern house where, amongst the many plants, 
Davallia Mooreana, 8 feet through, stands pre-eminent, and the quaint 
Conifer-like Lycopodium squarrosum from the Himalayas claims 
attention. The next division contains Orchids, including some large 
Sobralias, of which xantholeuca is in flower and also the deep rich 
Cattleya Sanderiana. Cypripediums are largely represented. Parrishi 
is fine, and very pretty is Trichopilia Wagneri with pale green sepals 
and white lip. 
The curvilinear range, 350 feet long in five divisions, contains a 
vast collection, that of Bromeliads being the largest extant. Succulents, 
too, are in vast array. Napoleona (Bonapartea) imperialis is a fine 
Citron-foliaged shrub with a Passion-flower-like blossom, and very 
pleasing are the soft pale yellow blossoms of Bignonia Chamberlaini. 
Illumining a back wall in one division is the golden Cassia laevigata. 
Leaving this range the aquatic house comes next, where the Victoria 
regia rightly holds sovereign sway, whilst floating round the outer leaves 
Pistia stratiotes, the Water Soldier, acts as a guard of honour to the 
Water Queen, a small overshot wheel fed by a pipe keeps the water in 
circulation ; huge p'ants of Caladiums, exceptionally fine, stand on the 
edges of the tank and side stages, and Nymphaeas rosea and coerulea are 
in beauty inside and outside in an overflow tank ; near this house is one 
devoted to tree Ferns. 
Entering the private grounds “Mums ” (unworthy abbreviation, why 
not Chrysanths ?) are in strong force, and call forth some notes of 
admiration from me while my guide strikes a discordant one by asking, 
“ Are they worth the trouble ? ” But he regards with such an air of 
fatherly affection the sturdy brown legs of his 600 children that I con¬ 
clude without resorting to the argumentum ad hominem that we are both 
on the one side. In the private houses is a fine collection of Odonto- 
glossums and Masdevallias. Mr. Moore has an army, some in flower, more 
curious than handsome, and though it may be heresy to say so, here in 
the cool temperature is the prince of Pitchers the Rajah, the only plant in 
Ireland. Alas 1 that it should be so. To describe “ His Highness ’’ I should 
say that he is short and stout, yet withal having a dignity quite his own, 
holding the same position in the great family of Nepenthes that the 
Eastern potentate does to his subjects, an idea helped out perhaps by the 
“ gobble you up ” appearance of the brown - hued pitchers, hence 
perhaps the reason for guarding a magnificent Cephalotus with a bell- 
glass, and preventing a catastrophe. Darlingtonias and Droseras are 
671 masse. A house of Filmy Ferns is fine, with grand Todeas, a cartload 
of the Killarney Fern, and many choice Hymenophyllums. Another 
house is filled with choice Zonal Pelargoniums and Tuberous Begonias 
over which my friend lingers lovingly, but I have trespassed long 
enough on his time, two hours have slipped by all too quickly but very 
pleasantly.—E. K. 
SOBRALIA LEDCOXANTHA. 
This beautiful Orchid does not appear to have become very 
plentiful yet, judging by its non-appearance in many collections, 
notwithstanding that it has been known to specialists for some 
years. The plant is dwarf in habit, the slender stems 1 to 2 feet 
high, bearing plicate leaves like those of other better known Sobra¬ 
lias, and the flowers are clustered near the apex of the stem. It 
is related to S. macrophylla, but must not be confounded with 
S. xantholeuca, also a valuable and handsome plant bearing pale 
yellow flowers. 
When well grown the flowers are really handsome. The sepals 
on some blooms I have are nearly .3 inches long and 1 inch broad, 
massive, pure white, and recurving. The petals are of similar 
length and breadth, slightly recurving, not quite so thick as the 
sepals, but pure white. The lip is partially tubular, the tube 
2 inches long, the limb rounded one-half to three-quarters of an 
inch across, and beautifully frilled, rich orange, yellow in the throat 
fading to the margin, which is pure white ; the base of the lip and 
the column are also white. Each flower is very neat in form, the 
wax-like substance and purity being beautifully relieved by the 
dash of orange in the lip. An illustration of this charming Orchid 
would doubtless interest your readers.— Specialist. 
[The engraving (fig. 15) depicts a bloom of Sobralia leuco- 
xantha.] 
New Orchids. 
Among other interesting features of the July number of the 
“ Kew Bulletin,” a copy of which has come to hand, are some notes 
on “ New Orchids.” Ten species that have flowered at Kew or 
FIG. 15.—sobralia LEUCOXANTHA. 
have been determined there are described, and as being of special 
interest to our readers we extract the four notes which follow this 
paragraph. 
Polystachya imbricata. 
This species was sent by Mr. J. O’Brien of Harrow-on-the-Hill, 
Middlesex, with whom it flowered in August, 1891. It may be 
placed near to P. ensifolia, Llndl., which, however, has much longer 
leaves and a lax inflorescence. There does not appear to be any 
species with which the present one can easily be confused. The 
sepals are pale yellow, the lateral ones suffused with pink along the 
margins ; the petals straw colour, and the lip pink, with a yellow 
callus, and wholly pubescent inside. 
Oncidium luteum. 
This Oncidium flowered in the collection of Sir Trevor 
Lawrence, Bart., Dorking, in June, 1892, when it was sent to 
Kew for determination. It is closely allied to O. chrysopyramis, 
Rchh. /., but that species has invariably a broader isthmus to the 
lip, and a few other structural differences which seem to indicate 
the distinctness of the present one. Its flowers are uniformly light 
yellow, and borne in a large lax panicle. It belongs to a group of 
species in which the column and its elongated rostellum resemble 
the head and beak of a bird, from which one of the species, 
O. ornithorhynchum, Ku7ith, derived its specific name. Lindley 
distributed the species into four or five different sections, but they 
are so intimately allied as to leave no doubt of their forming 
natural group, which may bear the name Rostrata (a name used by 
Lindley in a more restricted sense). About twenty species bave 
been described, but several of them are still very imperfectly 
known. 
