12 
JOURNJ.L OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 5, 18E8. 
gent lateral lobes, bright rose in the centre, the other portion white 
spotted with purple. The flowers are not quite so closely set in the 
spike as in the ordinary forms, and though the foliage and habit are 
strong they are not so dense. With the exception of Aerides odoratum 
this genus is a somewhat neglected one, though it contains many hand¬ 
some forms. 
Next on the list is Barkeria Vanneriana, which was shown at South 
Kensington by AV. A''anner, Esq., Camden AVood, Chislehurst, on 
January 11th last year. The Barkerias, though beautiful, are avoided 
by many cultivators, because they do not always succeed as might be 
desired. The plant shown by Mr. Vanner was, however, a very healthy 
one, and had a long scape with a few bright rosy purple flowers near the 
apex, the sepals lanceolate, the petals more ovate, the lip oval, acumi¬ 
nate, white in the centre. 
Two Calanthes were'certificated last year—viz., C. Halli, from Mr. AV. 
Hall, Upper Tulse Hill (November 8th), and C. sanguinaria, from Sir 
Trevor Lawrence, Bart., M.P., Burford Lodge, Dorking (December 13th). 
C. Halli was the result of a cross betvveen C. Veitchi and C. vestita 
luteo-oculata, and is a valuable acquisition, the flowers of great size and 
substance, 2^ inches in diameter and pure white. The plant exhibited 
had two spikes 12 inches long and four pseudo-bulbs, having been raised 
from seed six years ago. The compact growth of the plant and sub¬ 
stance of the flowers renders this Calanthe remarkable, and the white 
flowers afford a striking contrast with the richly coloured C. Veitchi 
forms. 
Calanthe sanguinaria was one of a group of choice varieties and 
hybrids that merit especial note. Many of these were seedlings of which 
the exact parentage is unknown, though it is not atall difficult to trace the 
characters of C. A^eitchi and C. vestita in the majority, the influence of 
one or the other usually preponderating. C. sanguinaria is an extraor¬ 
dinary production, and most valuable for the intensely dark red or 
maroon colour of its large handsome flowers, which in contrast with the 
light tinted Calanthes appear almost black. This seems to have much 
of the C. vestita habit and floral form with a strange deepening of 
colour. The other forms included in the group were C. Veitchi splendens, 
flowers of great size, deep colour, and white centre, 2^ inches across 
from apex of upper sepal to the tip of the lip, the latter being inch 
in diameter ; C. Sedeni, very deep in colour and compact in the spike ; 
C. amabilis, large flowers, pale blush, white centre ; C. burfordiensis, 
very deep rosy crimson, with reHexing sepals and petals ; C. rubro- 
oculata, white, with an intensely rich crimson in the centre ; C. Veitchi 
lactea, creamy white ; C. nivea, flower lar^e, creamy white, with a 
yellow centre ; i C. luteo-oculata, pure white, with orange centre; 
C. porphyrea, a pretty, neat, bright rose flower, 1^ inch across, the lip 
rounded ; C. rosea, flower very large, blush ; C. dubia, nearly white, and 
the pretty graceful Limatodes rosea which, as all remember, was one of 
the parents of Calanthe A'^eitchi. It may also be added that C. porphyrea 
is a hybrid from Limatodes labrosa and C. vestita rubro-oculata, nearly 
the same parentage as Messrs. A''eitch’s C. lentiginosa. 
The illustration (fig. 2) represents five of the Calanthes and their 
hybrids as shown on the occasion already mentioned. The top left-hand 
figure is C. porphyrea, the bottom left-hand figure is C. rosea, the top 
right-hand flowers are Limatodes rosea, the next on the same side is 
C. Veitchi lactea, and the lowest one the dark C. sanguinaria. The 
plants were remarkably well grown by Mr. Bickerstaffe, and the value 
of Calanthes when properly treated cannot be over-estimated for winter 
groups.— Lewis Castle. 
(To be continued.) 
HEATING EAELY VINE BOEDERS. 
The first week of January is a period at which many Vines are 
started into growth, and to force them successfully it is important 
that the heat in the interior of the vinery be constant and sufficient to 
prevent a check from a cold exterior, as this may occur at any time until 
the end of March is reached. But apart from preventing a check of this 
sort, there are various appliances which may be used in forcing that will 
materially assist the Vines in their free' and robust development, and 
amongst these none is more important than the application of bottom 
heat to the border and roots. It operates like magic on them and is 
highly beneficial. In some cases a great outlay has been incurred to heat 
the early Vine borders with hot water pipes, but this plan is far from 
common, and the absence of it need not be regretted, as a good hotbed 
answers the same purpose equally well. AA^iere the roots aie inside, a 
hotbed is not so much wanted, although even in this case it is ad¬ 
vantageous ; but where the roots are in the open a hotbed is absolutely 
necessary to their success, as it causes the Vines to come sooner into leaf, 
producing stronger growths and finer bunches, and places the roots more 
in harmony with the branches than is the case where the border is quite 
cold and the interior very warm. 
A hotbed on a A^ine border is made up in the ordinary way, and 
although it need not be very large, it ought to be made up to retain the 
hest until the cold weather is past. There is no difficulty in making 
them up to retain the heat for three months, and the proper time to put 
them on is at the time the vinery is first closed, and the beneficial effects 
of it will then be felt at the time it is most wanted, which is just as the 
leaves and bunches are developing. Last spring we omitted to put a 
hotbed on our early vinery border, and the deficiency was so visible on 
the Vines all the year through that the hotbed system will now become 
an annual practice.— A Kitchen Gaedeneb. 
THE SETTING, STONING AND SAVELLING OF GRAPES. 
AVhen I sent you a few lines on the above subject I was under the 
impression that many intelligent gardeners and others would take the 
same scientific interest I take myself in any abnormal results from good 
Vine culture. I thought, indeed, that the interest, if not the instruc¬ 
tion, which accompanies this very important, and to me very enter¬ 
taining study or pursuit, would be heightened by the assumption of at 
any rate average skill and good management in the examples and par¬ 
ticulars which have been given from \A'est Lynn, otherwise I at least 
should not have troubled you. It seems to me that Mr. Taylor is of a 
rather different opinion, but if so the reflection is very harmless, except 
in any possible rebound it may have upon himself. However, on this , 
matter, as on all others outside the subject of Vine “ feeding” and what 
may directly concern it, I shall leave the actual cultivator to speak for 
himself. Upon this I am challenged, and am happy to reply ; for 
though I naturally make no profession of efficiency in practical garden¬ 
ing, I am quite prepared to stand by and support any of my previous 
statements of practical detail, gardening or other. 
I have said then that the West Lynn Vines are kept 'well and duly 
supplied with all the manurial food they require, and being pretty 
intimately acquainted and connected with agricultural experiments, I 
certainly should not, as Mr. Taylor seems to think, speak of the suffi¬ 
ciency of any manures from which nitrogen was absent. This is but an 
initial letter in the alphabet of the subject of manuring. Mr. Taylor, 
on the contrary, believes the Vines to be starving, and is kind enough to 
give several leading indications by which it may be made known if 
such is the case or not. In this connection I will leave Mr. Stephen Castle 
to answer for himself, only asking Mr. Taylor to inquire of any com¬ 
petent person who saw the Gros Colman Grapes from AVest Lynn which 
took a prize at the AA^estminster Aquarium in the autumn, if he can 
point to 20 or 2.5 lbs. of better Grapes cut from a Vine of one rod of 
this variety. Grapes of more perfect finish, of better berry, of deeper 
colour, or greater density of bloom. Anyhow, is such a crop likely to 
be cut from a starved A^'ine ? Again, did Mr. Taylor ever see a starved 
Gros Colman Vine produce upon three rods forty bunches of, in all 
respects, good and well finished Grapes, and of the estimated average 
weight of 2 lbs. per bunch 1 The same Vine perfecting besides the crop 
a very vigorous fourth rod of 5-8ths inch diameter, which, though 
stopped at the apex of the roof might have been carried to the ground 
on the other side, and ripened all the way. Now, it is only necessary to 
say that all the Vines at AVest Lynn have received precisely similar 
treatment throughout in regard to applications of lime or other 
manurial food. 
AVhen Mr. Taylor says that an application to the surface of a Vine 
border of 14 lbs. of lime—presumably caustic lime, though he does not 
say so, or it would be entirely harmless—is enough to destroy every¬ 
thing in the shape of nitrogenous food which that border has previously 
contained, he must excuse me if I say he is in error. I will say at once, 
however, that caustic lime has never been applied at AA’'est Lynn by my 
advice or desire except in small quantities for the purpose only of im¬ 
proving the mechanical condition of the soil. As a manure where lime 
is wanted I have uniformly advised the use of gypsum or sulphate of 
lime as being more soluble, and therefore more quickly available and 
better as a food than common lime, and perfectly safe to use in any 
safe quantity. It was only recently that Mr. S. Castle, by the advice of a. 
great authority, who recommended the caustic lime in preference, 
without appending the caution he now thinks needed of moderation, 
used, or wished to use, it in preference to the gypsum. Strange to say 
also the cue of quantity was taken from Mr. Taylor’s own receipt in 
“ Vines at Longleat,” and as he there says the effect of the application 
was extremely successful and immediate, surely it can scarcely have 
destroyed everything in the shape of nitrogenous matters in his- 
border. 
I concede at once, however, that Mr. Taylor has got hold of one 
element of truth in his statements upon caustic lime, and of it he shall 
have the benefit without further delay. It is no doubt bad gardening 
to apply common lime with any ammoniacal manures, and one I should 
never sanction, though I do not think the practical effects would ia 
any case be nearly so serious as Mr. Taylor seems to imagine, and certainly 
not so as lime has been used at AVest Lynn. Still, as I have said, and as 
Mr. S. Castle knows very well, I prefer, on this very account, not using 
caustic lime at all as a manure. If common lime is mixed with sulphate 
of ammonia of course the sulphuric acid which previously fixed the 
ammonia therein is immediately liberated, as the nose readily detects. 
The sulphuric acid will leave the ammonia for the lime. A similar 
result takes place when other ammoniacal matter is placed in actual 
contact with lime, but such a connection only occurs to a very modified 
extent in any ordinary practice, and so far from a large dressing of 
lime robbing a Vine border of all previously applied manure, it could 
at most only affect the surface where it was pointed in. Besides, I am 
in a position to prove.to Mr. Taylor, if he requires it, by certain experi¬ 
ments within my knowledge, that such a dressing of lime is rendered 
perfectly innocuous as a destroyer of nitrogenous materials within three 
months of application. By that time it will have attracted sufficient 
carbonic acid from the air if it could find acidity nowhere else to- 
neutralise its caustic properties. Such neutralisation would take place 
still quicker if exposed to the air before application, hence the practice 
of so doing in great lime-using districts. The lime then becomes car¬ 
bonate of lime, or chalk, and Mr. Taylor will not contend that chalky 
soils are by any means necessarily infertile. 
Thereisalso within my knowledge a.garden of adhesive soil upon which 
