December 8, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
499 
and flowers ; the soil and its management, including draining, 
digging, trenching, manuring ; planting, sowing, protecting, water¬ 
ing, and pruning. All these operations in gardening are the key¬ 
notes to success. On their proper performance at the right times 
and in the most intelligent manner depends largely whether success 
is achieved or not. Study and practice ought to be combined when¬ 
ever possible, but unfortunately opportunity cannot always be had 
to carry out methodically a set course of study. 
The management of glass houses is at the present time one of 
the most important features in a gardener’s duties. Strict atten. 
tion must be paid to acquiring all the knowledge possible on this 
point, as structures containing valuable plants must have continual 
and exact attention. Other matters which will need study are 
the effect of light and shade upon plants ; the correct temperatures 
necessary to their well being ; the amount of air they require, with 
the best means of keeping them vigorous, healthy and clean. 
The principles of heating by hot water must be fully understood 
before any attempt to manage such appliances can be sanctioned. 
Depending solely upon routine knowledge without comprehending 
the principles is the means of failures taking place, which prove 
mysterious because they are not understood through the fact that 
the causes from insufficient knowledge are not discoverable. 
The above are some of the leading subjects for a gardener to 
study. The list is not exhaustive, but it is sufficiently extensive to 
enable anyone carrying it out fully and carefully by study and 
practice to provide himself with a vast amount of information 
which cannot fail to be useful. In addition to studying particular 
subjects as exhaustively as possible, a wide and judicious course of 
general reading will add much to the zest for acquiring information. 
If the matter selected is often outside the pale of horticultural 
knowledge generally, it may indirectly afford some valuable 
assistance to the student. Avoid light and frivolous literature of 
an evil tendency, but that of an instructive and edifying tone may 
be welcomed as a relaxation. 
In gardening as in other things, there are fashions followed, 
and the gardener should with the aid of his horticultural periodical 
seek to gain as much information as he can about flowers, plants, 
and fruits which occupy a leading place in the public regard. 
(To be continued.) 
CALLA NILOTICA (?) AND OTHERS: 
A French nurseryman, Monsieur Letellier, of Caen, is now 
offering tubers of a Calla under the above name at the moderate 
price, for a new plant, of 5 francs, or two for 9 francs. He says 
they were collected on the banks of the Nile, and were described 
to him by the collector as bearing very beautiful white and red 
flowers. As no Calla hitherto known produces flowers of more 
than one coloir, I at first thought on reading the advertisement in 
the Revue Horticole that the plant could not be a Calla at all, but 
might be a Nelumbium, as N. speciosum has large pale rose-coloured 
flowers, which may be seen annually in the tropical Nymphrea 
house at Kew. I therefore out of curiosity sent for a tuber to 
see what it was, and having received it in due course it is evident 
that it is a Calla, and it is to be hoped that when it blooms during 
the spring of 1893 it may turn out to be a new and fine variety. 
When writing a short time ago in your columns about the 
yellow Calla known as C. Elliotti (page 31), I ventured to 
describe it as a hybrid between C. hastata and the ordinary 
C. sethiopica, but my views were demurred to and called in ques¬ 
tion by your correspondent, “ E. H. M.” (page 122), who, if I 
remember rightly, expressed his opinion that it was a species and 
not a hybrid, as I had stated. Now, I have recently received an 
unsolicited testimony in confirmation of my opinion from a florist 
friend who grows a large collection of these plants, and is a most 
careful and accurate observer of all their points and characteristic 
peculiarities. This gentleman writes to say that the fact of 
C. Elliotti being a natural hybrid between C. hastata and 
C. sethiopica is, to his mind, clearly proved not only by its spotted 
leaves and the shape of its spathe, but by its being a summer 
bloomer, which C. hastata is. 
It is to be hoped that the splendid golden Calla shown at a 
recent Drill Hall meeting of the R.H.S. by Mr. Whyte under the 
name of C. Pentlandi (which must be changed for classical correct¬ 
ness to either Pentlandiana or Pentlandensis, being the name of a 
place, and not of a person) will reproduce itself true from seed, as 
C. Elliotti does, and that it will before many years be available 
for the decoration of many greenhouses. I also venture to hope 
that before it is ready for distribution its name will be definitely 
changed from that of the residence of its fortunate introducer, 
which it now bears, to what should undoubtedly be its true and 
correct designation, namely, Calla sethiopica aurea, as it is admitted 
by all who have seen it to be merely a very fine bright golden form 
of the type.— Boscobel. * 
Cypripedium Morgans Burfordiense. 
This fine variety attracted some attention at the Drill Hall on 
November 15th, when it was shown by Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., 
Burford Lodge, Dorking, and deemed worthy of a first-class certi¬ 
ficate. The specimen exhibited had a scape about 18 inches high, 
carrying one fully expanded flower, and if my memory does not 
fail me one or two buds. To the inexperienced eye the flower at 
first sight closely resembled that of the type, but on examination 
proved to be a decided improvement. The dorsal sepal is broad, of 
a light colour, suffused with a pale purplish tint, and marked with 
dark veins. The petals are about 3 inches in length, of a creamy 
white colour, and heavily spotted with chocolate. The most 
striking feature about this Orchid, however, is the lip. This is 
very large, and of a purplish red colour, forming a pleasing contrast 
to the other portions of the flower.— Orchidist. 
Cattleya Alexandra. 
Regarding Cattleya Alexandra, Mr. W. Watson, in the “ Garden 
and Forest,” says:—Of this I am a little suspicious, a plant of it having 
flowered lately at Kew—the first to flower anywhere, I believe. It 
is one of the C. guttata c’ass, and, judged by the plant flowered here, 
one of the worst of them. The flower is 3 inches across, like that 
of C. guttata var. Leopoldi, the sepals and petals dull greenish- 
brown with a few reddish blotches, and the labellum rosy mauve. 
Of course, the Kew plant may be the worst possible variety, and 
the collector who pictured and described this discovery as a many- 
flowered beauty may not have seen anything so poor as the first 
flower that has opened in England. We hope not. 
Cypripedium Arthurianum pulchellum. 
During the past few years Messrs. J. Yeitch & Sons, Royal 
Exotic Nursery, Chelsea, have introduced many charming hybrid 
Cypripediums, and the majority of them will doubtless be exten¬ 
sively grown when well known. Among others, sonce of which 
have been illustrated and described in these pages, may be men¬ 
tioned C. Arthurianum pulchellum (fig. 6G). This is a hybrid 
between C. insigne Chantini and C. Fairrieanum. In general 
appearance it resembles C. Arthurianum, but has the addit on of 
