496 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 8, 1887. 
Woodforde, Oakbank, Spencer’s Wood, Reading, has, however, for¬ 
warded a flower of a variety in his collection that is greatly superior 
to the ordinary type, considerably larger, brighter, and more 
delicate in colouring and marking. In the type first figured the 
flowers were inch in diameter, in this they are If inch from tip 
to tip of the petals. The sepals and petals are three-eighths of an 
inch broad at the base, pale yellow, heavily and clearly spotted with 
purplish brown, especially at the base. The lip is of a delicate 
creamy yellow tint, is 1 inch in diameter, five-eighths of an inch 
across the centre from the base to the margin, slightly indented at 
the apex, uniform, contracted at the base into a narrow claw, with 
a dark purplish black rounded projecting crest, which has a curious 
effect in contrast with the pale tint of the other portion of the lip. 
The column has two rounded wing-like projections near the top, 
spotted at the inner surface with pale purple. 
Dr. Woodforde has favoured me with the following particulars : 
—“I received it direct from Brazil (Rio Janeiro) two years ago, it 
being one of a parcel of some fifty Orchids brought home for me 
by my son, Dr. Sidney Woodforde. I was fortunate enough to 
have hardly any losses in starting them, and since then they have, 
without a single exception, thriven and done well in a cool ‘general 
utility ’ house, size 30 feet by 10 feet (glazed on the non-puttying 
system and amply ventilated). They have had to put up with 
ordinary treatment, as the house also contains some young Vines 
and climbing greenhouse plants, as well as the usual contents of 
such a house in their various seasons. They have grown vigorously 
and flowered, some last year, while others which had not then suffi- 
Fig . 53.— Oncidium dasystyle Dr. Wood.'orde’s variety. 
ciently established themselves have now done so, and promise well 
for bloom. In managing my Orchids I have been guided mainly by 
your admirable little book, with occasional references to Williams 
and other writers on them, and I need hardly say that they are a 
source of continual and daily interest to me. Last summer some 
plants of 0. dasystyle of the ordinary type bloomed with me and 
ar ®. ^° w dowering again or showing for bloom. The variety of 
which I sent you a flower has a spike some 22 inches in length, 
bearmg eight blooms on the upper 8 inches. There is some little 
difference in the leaf of this and the ordinary kind.” Sir Trevor 
Lawrence, Bart., M.P., Burford Lodge, has a variety resembling 
this, which was purchased last year at one of the sale rooms. 
TV Poflstt, Esq., Bickley, also has a handsome variety, but 
differing from this in several points. 
Since then Dr. Woodforde has sent a drawing of a portion of 
the spike, and one of the flowers from this represented in the 
woodcut (fig. 58). He also adds, “ My plant began to flower early 
in July and continued in flower for four months—that is, till the 
beginning of November. The later flowers were on the secondary 
branchlets of the spike, the main stem of which was 22 inches in 
length, and had eighteen flowers. The last blooms were quite as 
1 irS® an d bright as the earliest ones, and the plant continues in 
vigorous health.” 
ONCIDIUM CHEIROPHORUM. 
This is a dwarf-growing compact Orchid, deserving a place in 
the most select collection. The flowers, which are produced during 
the winter months on upright branching spikes, are a charmino’ 
yellow colour and remain in beauty for a long time. To succeed 
with this, it should be potted in peat and sphagnum with liberal 
drainage and grown near the glass at the coolest end of the Cattleya 
house. There are some splendid plants in flower at the present 
time under the above treatment in the collection of Eward Ellis 
Esq., Manor House, Wallington. They are in 6-inch pots, each 
carrying eight spikes with scores of sweet-scented flowers. In the 
same house, too, are numerous spikes of the showy O. varicosum. 
Of 0. tigrinum there are several forms, the best a good dark variety 
bearing thirty-eight blooms on a branching spike. The plants are 
suspended from the roof, and in this manner the graceful arching 
spikes are seen to perfection. Masdevallia tovarensis in 8-inch pots 
are in fine health, and will soon be in a mass of white bloom. Ca- 
lanthes also are showing well, some of the flower stalks having a 
leaf-like appendage. In the cool house the lovely Odontoglossum 
madrense has been in bloom for more than three months, and Mas¬ 
devallia amabilis in a large specimen has been continuously blooming 
for the whole year. All the Orchids are doing well under the care 
of Mr. T. Glover, the gardener.— W. G. C. 
CALANTHES IN BASKETS. 
Much is written about Calanthes and their culture, and I think 
too much cannot be said in favour of these lovely winter Orchids, 
for few plants attract more admiration than Calanthes when well 
grown. As a rule, I think gardeners generally grow them in pots 
only. At Raby we make a specialty of Calanthes in baskets as well 
as in pots, and as a basket plant I wish to pass a few remarks upon 
them. Calanthes, when grown in pots, lose that graceful appear¬ 
ance that they have when hanging from a basket. We have about 
sixteen baskets of Calanthes over a path in the plant stove with ten 
and eleven spikes in each basket. I measured one of the finest 
recently, and it was 5 feet 7 inches long, with fifty-three blooms, 
and not at its full length yet. We hang one basket of C. Veitchi 
and then one of vestita, and so on alternately. Each side of the 
path we have Ferns and different foliage plants, so that the green 
foliage underneath helps to show the colours of the flowers. I 
might mention that many of our pseudo-bulbs this year are flower¬ 
ing from the top as well as at the base. We have two distinct 
varieties of C. Veitchi. The colour of one is much darker than 
the other, and the flowers are produced much more closely together. 
The pseudo-bulbs also are quite distinct. In the light variety the 
pseudo-bulbs have an indentation as if a piece of string had been 
tied tightly around them ; the darker variety loses the indentation, 
and the pseudo-bulbs are quite straight. We consider the dark 
variety by far the better, still we like to keep the light one as a 
contrast. Those that have not yet tried Calanthes in baskets and 
have room to grow them should certainly do so next year. 
We re-basket our Calanthes about the middle of February, and 
grow them in a temperature from 65° to 70°, with a slight shade 
in summer. We first line the basket with sphagnum moss. We 
then mix a compost of fibrous loam with a very little Orchid peat, 
some cow manure that has been dried before so that it will break 
readily, and some sphagnum moss, with plenty of charcoal and rough 
sand. We shake all the small soil from the loam and use only the 
fibre. We plant the pseudo-bulbs well above the rim of the baskets, 
not too firm. We give them very little water till they are fairly 
started, then we feed them with liquid manure made from deer 
dung till they show their flower spikes, say about 3 or 4 inches 
long, then we gradually withhold water till they become quite dry. 
We leave the pseudo-bulbs in the baskets until we again re-basket 
them in February.— James Tullett, Foreman, The Gardens, 
Raby Castle, Darlington. 
APPLE TREE ENEMIES. 
Here we have, foremost, the notorious American blight, which every¬ 
body knows. This insect is said to retire into the ground during the 
winter, and to prey on the roots during that dormant period, and there 
seems no reason to doubt it. I have never attacked it under those con¬ 
ditions, but I do think that its position is anything but secure if we 
were to betake ourselves earnestly to its extirpation. I was sorely 
troubled with this pest two or three years since ; and last autumn I had 
brcome almost heartless at the serious appearance of many of our Apple 
trees. I had repeatedly applied spirits of turpentine to the larger 
patches, and had, in a great measure, conquered them in the nooks and 
crannies ; but they had, in many cases, completely invested the upper 
twigs, or young wood ; and I dare not pursue them all over the tree, 
knowing, by experience, that much turpentine is highly prejudicial to 
the tree. 
As soon as the leaves were falling—about the first week in November 
—I had the trees syringed heavily twice over, on two successive days, 
with a mixture of softsoap, water, and stable liquid, using four ounces 
to the gallon of soap, the stable liquid constituting nearly one-half. 
This was made to saturate every cranny of the trees, and so profuse was 
the application that the soil was completely caked with the falling 
liquid. I am of opinion that the blight was then near the surface of the 
soil, and, if so, doubtless numbers would be destroyed. I have now 
nearly cleared the whole garden of this pest, having applied spirits of 
turpentine the moment a patch appeared through the summer. I shall, 
however, repeat the dose, and hope to report an entire clearance. Our 
trees, formerly the admiration of all, presented such a bare appearance 
last September that I almost despaired of getting a good crop again ; 
but I have gathered at least 50 bushels from the mere espaliers of the 
kitchen garden, and finer samples were never seen. 
