October G, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
801 
of Brazil has increased the virgin forests have been cut down or 
burnt, and the cool shades have given place to a sterile and barren 
desert. Now months pass without a drop of rain falling. In 
France, on the Alps of Dauphine, we find the slopes dry and arid ; 
the rock appears everywhere. The environs of Gap lost their life 
with their forests. Have the Swiss anything more precious than 
the Arole (Pinus cembra, L.), the most majestic of forest trees, and 
which grows on the highest slopes ? This species formerly existed 
in large forests : at the present day only some remnants are to 
be found. 
A terrible consequence of this clearing, this stripping of 
mountain slopes, is the frequency of inundations. Forests 
exercise a salutary influence from the point of view of meteor¬ 
ology. At the time of heavy rains not only do the tops of the 
trees play the rcile of umbrellas, but the soil of the forest acts 
like a sponge, absorbing the water, and allowing it to run away 
gradually without endangering the lower parts. In the countries 
where the timber has been cleared away, on the contrary, the 
waters at once become formidable. At the Universal Exhibition, 
in the Forest Pavilion, the schemes presented for the turning of 
torrents comprise at the same time the replanting of the slopes at 
the foot of which the waters roll. 
When I speak about the protection of plants I mean the humble 
flowers of our woods just as much as the large trees which shelter 
them under their branches. The savant is interested in not letting 
any vegetable species disappear ; for him the loss of a species is 
equivalent to the disappearance of an interesting page of history. 
Clearings, works of public utility, the extension of the culture of 
useful plants, the draining of marshes cause changes in the local 
flora sometimes of a marked description, destroying rare plants, 
and causing the disappearance, in some localities, of interesting 
species. For the single department of Somme, M. Gonse recently 
called attention in the “ Bulletin de la Societe Linneenne du Nord 
de la France ” to the fact that some fifty species had disappeared 
or were tending to disappear. The species of plants most menaced 
are those which are sought by amateurs or horticulturists on 
account of their gracefulness, the brightness of their flowers, or 
merely their rarity. Let us add to these spoilers some botanists 
who do not even respect the rarest plants, and are in the habit 
of sacking everything wherever they pass. 
The dwarf Palm Chamserops humilis, L., the only one of its 
family a native of Europe, was formerly in the environs of Nice. 
In 1841 M. Cosson, directed by M. Risso, a Nice botanist, gathered 
leaves on the last stalk, nothing but leaves, which have been 
preserved in his herbarium. This plant, which had been spared 
by all the inclemencies of the weather, which even resisted the 
effects in 1820 of a nocturnal cold ever memorable for the south 
of France (10° C.), and which killed in one night all the Orange 
trees of the Mediterranean coast, was destroyed by the Vandalism 
of foreign botanists, who extirpated even the last representative 
of the Palm. 
Spiranthes Romanzoviana is a very interesting plant. Its white 
flower exhales an exquisite perfume. Its only station known in 
Europe is a small meadow on the borders of Bantry Bay, in the 
south of Ireland. After numerous visits from botanists, the 
complete disappearance of this Orchid has recently been remarked. 
—V. Brandicourt, Librarian of the Society Linneene of the North 
of France. (To be continued.) 
Odontoglossum grande. 
This magnificent cool house Orchid usually flowers during 
October and November, and the brightness of its colouring enlivens 
the collection at a dull period of the year and commands attention. 
The pseudo-bulbs are distinct from other Odontoglots, being ovoid, 
3 inches long, and of a peculiar green colour. They are surmounted 
by a pair of broad leaves, 4 inches long, striated. The scapes are 
produced from the base of the bulb, and bear three to six flowers, 
each about 6 inches across. The sepals are oblong-lanceolate, 
yellow, with bars and blotches of reddish brown ; petals oblong, 
broader than the sepals, lower half reddish brown edged with 
yellow, upper half bright yellow ; lip roundish, very pale yellow, 
with a few red spots and blotches. The flowers last in perfection 
from three to four weeks. Od. grande was discovered in 
Guatemala in 1839, and flowered in England for the first time in 
the Duke of Bedford’s collection at Woburn in 1840 (“Bot. Mag.,” 
It. 3955). Although it may be grown and flowered in the cool house, 
yet this Odontoglossum requires a drier and slightly warmer tem¬ 
perature during its resting period ; after growth has ceased hardly 
any water will be needed until it commences again. No collection 
should be without this, the finest and certainly the most showy 
species of the genus.—C. K. 
Peristeria Lindeni. 
Peristeria Lindeni (see fig. 41) is a new specie? introduced a 
few months ago by L’Horticulture Internationale, Parc Leopold, 
r , s 
FIG. 41. —PERISTERIA lindeni. 
Brussels, and which flowered in spring at their establishment. It 
is distinguished by a new and very attractive colour. The flowers, 
which are globular in form, are abundantly spotted and washed 
with dull purple on a clear greenish yellow ground. They are 
produced to the number of five to seven on an erect stem, which 
rises very little above the bulbs. This new species, when exhibited 
at the April meeting of L’Orchideenne at Brussels, obtained a 
diplome d’honneur of the first class unanimously. It forms plate 
328 of Lindenia.— Max Garnier (in “Le Journal des Orchidees”). 
CtELOGYNE OCELLATA. 
Introduced in 1822 from SylhetbyMr. Loddiges, this charm¬ 
ing Orchid holds its own as an intermediate or cool house plant. 
Although usually flowering early in the spring it often produces 
blooms about this time of the year. Grown in baskets or pans and 
suspended near the glass in the intermediate house or the warmest end 
of a coolstructure itsucceedq and when floweringlooks exceedingly 
pretty. The pseudo-bulbs are ovate, purplish and wrinkled, sur¬ 
mounted by two leaves each about 6 inches long, deep green and 
leathery. The erect racemes are produced on short peduncles from 
the apex of the bulbs and carry from three to six flowers. The 
flowers are starry in appearance ; the sepals and petals are pure 
white, spreading, oblong ; the lip is joined to the column and is 
three-lobed ; the side lobes are erect and obtuse, the central one 
elongated, white tinged with yellow and veined with orange and 
brown. At the base of the middle lobe and on the inside of the 
lateral ones are several large orange spots ; three raised wavy lines 
