August SO, 1888. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
187 
■white, brick reel, anl light blue received three marks; also of the Dwarf 
German Chamois and those of the new Giant Perfection (Denary), 
sulphur yellow and light blue, received three marks, and the dark 
blood red from the Novelty Company. 
Amongst the Asters the following received three marks. Half 
-•dwarf : Multiflora, white ; ditto, light yellow (Vilmorin) ; Globe 
PiEony-flowered, copper coloured, white edge (Vilmorin). Dwarf : 
Chrysanthemum, rose (Vilmorin); and ditto, scarlet red (Vilmorin) ; 
Dwarf Queen, crimson (Denary) ; Dwarf Queen, white (Denary) ; 
Mignon (Denary), pyramidal : Hedgehog or Needle, dark crimson 
'(Benary) ; large flowered rose, dark scarlet (Denary) ; Triumph (Novelty 
Company). The following assortments of various colours from Benary 
were commended—viz., double dwarf, early flowering, fourteen vars.; 
-dwarf bouquet flowered (Doltzes), eight vars. ; dwarf Chrysanthemum 
flowered, ten vars.; dwarf pyramidal flowered, twelve vars. The later 
•varieties will be further examined. 
THE COLD STORAGE OF FRUIT. 
It will be remembered that the Royal Horticultural Society, desirous 
•of ascertaining the practicability of preserving soft fruits under the in¬ 
fluence of cold, appointed a Committee to conduct experiments in co¬ 
operation with Mr. D. Tallerman of the Leadenhall Cold Storage 
•Company, whose cold chambers were obligingly granted for the purpose 
in question. The Committee met on Thursday last at the Company’s 
offices in Gracechurch Street, T. Francis Rivers, Esq., in the chair. 
They had both a warm and a cold reception, for it was necessary to 
■linger in the engine house in a temperature of 90° or more till pre¬ 
parations could be made for further progress, and then pass into very 
snowy surroundings. It was a change from the torrid to the frigid zone 
in a moment, and not an experience for persons in delicate health. The 
■cold in the three rooms was reduced by steam to about 36°, 25°, and 22°. 
Several half-bushel baskets of Cherries were placed in the chambers on 
August 8th, wet, and some of them decayed. Some were frozen like 
marbles, others were abnormally firm, but not actually frozen, others 
remaining soft. Those that were not frozen were in the same condition 
as when stored fifteen days previously, and those that were decayed then 
had not in the slightest degree communicated decay to others pressing 
.against them. Those in the coldest freezing chamber were spoiled. 
Soft fruits must evidently not be frozen, and the point to determine is 
the amount of cold that suffices to arrest fermentation, and this settled, 
it is not unlikely that soft fruit can be kept for some weeks or months. 
Various kinds of fruit will be tried under differing conditions in the 
Slope of acquiring information of substantial value. 
NORTH AMERICAN ORCHIDS. 
Most of the Orchids indigenous to the United States of North 
America are hardy in this country, and several of the Cypripediums 
•constitute the most showy of the Orchids grown out of doors here. 
A writer contributes an interesting article on the plants to “ Vick’s 
Magazine,” and from this we take the following notes 
The Showy Orchis, considered by late botanists our only (rue 
•Orchis, and Putty-root, are known to me only by reputation. 
■Orchis grandiflora and 0. orbiculata, the Habenaria or Platanthera 
fimbriata and P. orbiculata, of Gray, are likewise strangers. Cypri- 
pedium acaule was a friend of my Massachusetts school days, grow¬ 
ing in the edges of Pine woods, but I have never found it here, 
■perhaps because there are no Pine woods. Careful search in a 
swampy woodland was rewarded with Cypripedium pubescens and 
C. parviflorum, much alike in general appearance ; the latter smaller, 
with deep yellow fragrant flowers, while those of C. pubescens are 
scentless. 
In late summer a patient tramp through bush and briar in the 
same woods may be rewarded with the lilac spray of Habenaria 
psycodes, the smaller Purple-fringed Orchis, an exceedingly beauti¬ 
ful plant, which has a provoking trick of disappearing from its 
home when that has been discovered. I have found it growing in 
its delicate beauty, plucked the flower stem carefully not to injure 
stalk or root, taken the bearings of trees and under-shrubs, return¬ 
ing the next summer to search for rods around in vain. It had 
■disappeared as completely as the Tulip bulbs I used to plant in the 
garden in the fall did by spring. The blame in the latter case was 
laid to ground moles. Did some ground mole or field mouse serve 
Orchis roots as a dainty at some winter festival ? 
The Ragged Orchis, Habenaria lacera, with yellowish-green 
flowers, is not unlike H. psycodes in appearance of plant, though 
■quite inconspicuous as to blossom. But to a victim of the Orchid 
mania beauty of colouring is not an essential feature of a plant’s 
claim to regard. We admire it for its grotesqueness, its curious 
arrangement of parts, because it is unlike anything else—in short, 
because it is an Orchid. This Ragged Orchid I have found with¬ 
out very much trouble in wet meadows and pastures in late summer. 
The “ intervales,” or hollows in the wet meadows that are skipped 
in the mowing, are often treasure gardens of flowers in late summer. 
The mowing cuts off so many stems before they bloom ; some send 
up a feeble growth and a few flowers later, many give up the 
attempt for the season. 
In similar places grows Spiranthes cernua, which is plentiful 
enough to gather by handfuls, the only Orchidaceous plant I am 
inclined to call common, from my experience, unless I except 
Goodyera pubescens, though on some hillsides and in hedgerows 
Spiranthes gracilis is not rare. Both are called Lady’s Tresses. 
The most noticeable difference between them is that the flowers in 
S. cernua are in three ranks or rows on the spike, while those of 
S. gracilis are in one spirally twisted row. The leaves of S. gracilis 
commonly wither away before the flowers open, leaving the prim 
little stalk standing stiff as if in a child’s play garden, where the 
flowers are but blossoms pulled and stuck in the earth. 
One of the handsomest of our members of “ the royal family ” 
is Calopogon pulchellus. It scarcely has a common name. Wood 
mentions “ Grass Pink,” but that is misleading, and is frequently 
applied to a far different plant. I first met it on a warm day of 
early summer, the pink-purple blossoms seeming to float in the air 
as the wind swayed their delicate grass-like stems. A certain bog 
pasture supplied these floral butterflies for some years with toler¬ 
able regularity, but for some years past I have failed to find them. 
It may be I did not time my visit aright, and hours of careful 
search when not in bloom would hardly reveal their slender stems 
amid the lush growth of midsummer. 
Among my relics of school days is a pressed plant of Pogonia 
ophioglossoides, earlier and paler than Calopogon, which it yet 
resembles considerably. I found it then in a moist hollow in an 
old pasture, but a patient search in similar spots in this locality has 
never been thus rewarded. 
Goodyera pubescens and Corallorhiza are not infrequent in the 
woods where the Yellow Lady’s Slipper grows. The leaves of 
Goodyera are so peculiar that the plant can be easily recognised at 
any season of the year. It is the most conspicuous of our plants 
with mottled foliage. The nearest approach to it that I know of is 
Hieracium venosum, Rattlesnake Weed, often seen in our woods 
and hillsides. That has root-leaves veined and mottled with purple, 
but it has not the exquisite lace-like appearance of Goodyera. 
Corallorhiza multiflora is the only species of Coral-root I know of 
in this section, but they are much alike. The writer of the article 
published in January wonders why most plants destitute of green 
herbage wait for the late summer. If they are, as generally sup- 
root parasites, fastening their roots to those of other plants, and 
drawing thence the nourishment for their strange growth, it may 
be a provision of Nature in order that the nurse plant may not have 
the drain on its vitality till its own season of most rapid growth is 
past. I do not wish to say that such is the solution ; some of the 
Broomrapes flower in spring, but the trees on whose roots they 
appear to feed are not likely to feel the loss of sap enough to sup¬ 
port such pigmy dependents. The only one of these “ royal ” 
neighbours I have ever attempted to domesticate is Goodyera 
pubescens. It failed to survive the winter, perhaps for lack of the 
warm coverlet of leaves the autumn wind tucks so neatly over it 
in the hollows of its native woods. 
CONFERENCE OF FRUIT GROWERS AT THE 
CRYSTAL PALACE. 
A meeting of the Executive Committee of the above Conference 
was held in “ Anderton’s Hotel,” Fleet Street, on Tuesday last, 
August 28th, T Francis Rivers, Esq., in the chair. The principal busi¬ 
ness was the consideration of a number of communications received by 
the Hon. Secretaries, Messrs. Lewis Castle and Wm. Earley, offering 
papers and suggestions, and the determination of the programme for the 
Conference. The Committee now comprises about seventy of the lead¬ 
ing fruit growers, nurserymen, and amateurs throughout the kingdom, 
all of whom had expressed their hearty approval of the scheme, and 
their desire to assist in rendering the meeting both useful and interest¬ 
ing. After considerable discussion it was decided that the subjects 
should be taken in the following order, each paper to occupy about 
twenty minutes in reading to allow ample time for discussion. The 
Conference will be held in the Crystal Palace (the place will be notified 
on the morning of each day) on September 7th at 3 P.M., and Septem¬ 
ber 8th at 2 p.m. On September 7th the first subject will be “ Fruit 
Culture for Profit,” by Francis T. Rivers, Esq., to be followed by Mr. 
Coleman, Eastnor Castle Gardens, and others. The second subject'will 
be “ The Packing, Carriage, and Marketing of Fruits,” by Mr. Webber 
of Covent Garden and Mr. Samuel Rawson of Dirmingham. On Sep¬ 
tember 8th Mr. Tallerman will deal with “ Fruit Distribution,” Mr. 
Manning with “ Fruit as Food,” and Mr. Albert Bath with “ Land 
Tenure in Relation to Fruit Cultivation.” All who intend taking part 
