June 29, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
517 
the buds would not be at all open till between 6 and 7 p.m., and about 
eleven or twelve o’clock (rather later perhaps than earlier) they would 
be fully expanded. Certainly as late as seven the next morning I have 
seen them not quite closed, but soon after that they would be banging 
down, looking most disconsolate. 
I am sorry I cannot give you any fuller or more reliable information, 
as I should much like to, seeing they were such favourite plants of my 
father’s. I may add that we seldom had more than one, and 1 think 
never more than two out on the same plants at one time, and I should 
say a dozen during the season would be quite an outside number. 
I enclose two photographs, the particulars pencilled on the back, but 
am uncertain of the facts as regards the one I believe to be grandiOorus. 
My sisters tell me that when in North Wales some five or six years ago, 
they went over a gentleman’s garden with my father, which was quite a 
show place near Penmaenmawr, and there they saw a large Cereus 
which had from twenty to thirty buds on it; but alas ! as to variety 
they cannot speak. All they know is it was a night-bloomer.— Ma.ek 
B. F. Majoe, Cromioell House, Croydon. 
[The photographs depicted the blooms well, but were scarcely suitable 
for reproduction. 1 
GLASS COPINGS AND PEACH FAILURES. 
While not wishing to say one word against glass copings for wallS) 
I think very good crops of most kinds of fruit can be obtained without 
them in the south of England. I am acquainted with a garden where 
Cherries fail on the walls, owing it is said to the presence of fixed glass 
coping keeping rain from the leaves. Our trees on a west wall seldom 
fail to bear abundantly, and they are neither protected with glass copings 
or anything else. Peaches and Nectarines I regard as the most certain 
outdoor fruit. Speaking generally, the principal cause of failure to 
obtain full crops of Peaches annually is owing to a want of maturity of 
the growth. Whether the trees are under the protection of glass copings, 
or in the open against the wall, the result is the same. All the useless 
growth should be cut out directly the fruit is gathered, also keep the 
trees sufficiently thin all the summer. Why the pruning is deferred 
until the spring I never can understand. 
In some cases the cause of failure is in feeding the trees too liberally 
with stimulants. Peach trees require but little of this, except where the 
fruit crop is a heavy one and the growth weak. Where the roots are 
low in the border, too far from the warming influence of the sun upon 
the surface, the wood cannot mature in such a manner as to give satis¬ 
factory results. Peach trees prefer a firm surface soil; even if it were 
not interfered with for ten years by digging amongst the roots, it would 
be all the better if the roots were in the position they ought to be— 
close to the surface. Where vegetables are cultivated over the roots of 
the trees the crop of Peaches will be thin, adding manure to the soil 
and disturbing the roots being conducive to gross growth, which Peach 
cultivators do not like to see. 
Another cause of failure is in some instances, especially where 
the soil is light, due to want of sufficient moisture at the roots all 
through the summer and autumn. When a crop of fruit is gathered 
the careless cultivator is apt to forget the trees for some months in the 
matter of supplying the roots with water. The fruit is gone and the 
trees have completed their season’s growth, and what more beside 
maturity can the trees require 1 This latter, it is often thought, needs 
assistance, though, to acquire the right kind of matured growth. In 
light soil during hot weather it is much easier to give trees too little 
water than too much in the autumn.— Hants. 
Cypripedium X Charles Richman. 
The illustration (fig. 92) represents a bloom of this fine hybrid 
Cypripedium, which is the result of a cross between C. bellatulum 
and C. barbatum. A plant of it was shown at the Drill Hall 
on May 9fch by Mr. C. Richman, Springfield, Trowbridge, when 
ai|award of merit was adjudged for it by the Orchid Committee 
of the Royal Horticultural Society. The dorsal sepal is whitish, 
veined with deep rosy purplish shade. The petals are broad, 
similarly coloured, and covered with minute dark spots. The lip 
is a dark purplish brown. 
Orchis maculata superba. 
On a recent visit to the gardens at Kirkconnell House, Dumfries, 
N.B., the residence of Mrs. Maxwell-Witham, I saw a fine clump 
of this plant, which is rarely seen in good condition in gardens. I 
sent a spike to the Editor, who will, I think, agree that it was really 
beautiful, and, considering the season and the character of the soil, 
of exceptional merit. The ordinary O. maculata is very pretty, but 
this form is superior, the spike being much longer, the flowers 
more numerous and densely packed together, while they are also 
of a fine purple colour. 
This large variety appears to be difficult of cultivation, and 
Mr. John Harper, the gardener at Kiikconnell, has courteously 
favoured me with some particulars regarding it. The original 
plant from which that under notice was taken was found near 
Rowallan Castle in Ayrshire, and has been under cultivation for 
eighteen years. That at Kirkconnell was brought by Mr. Harper 
on entering on his present appointment about four years ago. 
This variety of 0. maculata appears to have been frequently found 
on Kenwick Moor in Ayrshire, and has occasionally been named 
0. Kenwicki, another name being 0. maculata “ Kilmarnock 
variety,” it having been put into trade by a Kilmarnock firm. Mr. 
Harper has grown it in stiff clay, with the flowering part of the 
spike no less than 13 inches in length ; but the plant at Kirkconnell 
is at present in a dryish border of alluvial soil, impoverished by 
the addition of ashes in order to make it more suitable for some 
rather tender plants for which it was originally intended. The 
spikes were thus shorter than tte length mentioned above, but 
they were of sufficient size to form an object of great beauty. 
O. maculata superba has been found to be short-lived in some 
gardens ; but Mr. Harper’s experience would show that in cultiva¬ 
tion it may attain a long life. In my garden I have had for over 
three years a variety of O. maculata under the same name, but not 
so fine as that at Kirkconnell, and this appears to require occasional 
removal to fresh soil and copious supplies of water while making 
growth. This year it is much inferior. O. maculata varies much 
in a wild state, and Mons. H. Correvon, in his new work, “ Les 
Orchidees Bustiques" (Geneva, 1893), names the following varieties : 
—Recurva, Bonanniana, longibracteata, macedonica, macrostachys, 
Meyeri, sudetica, and lusitanica. O. lapponica is said to be a 
northern form of 0. maculata.—S. Arnott. 
[The spike received from our correspondent was very fine 
indeed. The flowered portion measured 7 inches in length, and 
was 5^ inches in circumference.] 
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
June 20th. 
Scientific Committee. —Present; Dr. M. T. Masters (in the chair),. 
Mr. Morris, Mr. McLachlan, Dr. Muller, Prof. Oliver, Dr. Bonavia, and 
Rev. G. Henslow, Hon. Secretary. 
Scale on “ Retama." —Mr. Morris observed with reference to this- 
subject brought before the last meeting, that the name of the Retama is 
Cytisus nubigenus. It is the only ligneous plant growing on a platform 
at an elevation of 8000 feet on the Peak of Teneriffe. The whole of the 
plants were covered with the scale. Dr. Perez had noticed no instance 
of this scale insect appearing until Australian trees had been introduced 
into Teneriffe. Mr. Morris added that it has now appeared at Kew on 
the English Broom. 
Honey dew on Limes. —Mr. Morris remarked that this had been so 
abundant on the Limes at Kew that the cement pavement below them had 
become quite slippery from the drip from the trees. Mr. Henslow added 
that he remembered a similar occurrence from an Ash tree in a 
garden in Regent’s Park Road about the year 1878. 
Oranges in Devon. —Mr. Morris exhibited photographs of Orange trees 
growing and fruiting successfully in arched recesses at Coombe Royal, 
