420 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 14, 1889. 
Shallow pans and boxes filled with plants will give plenty of 
bloom if well supplied with weak liquid manure, but the plants will 
flower longer and finer when grown in pots or boxes of the usual 
depth. A little earthing-up may then be given them at times. 
Attend well to the drainage, and cover the tubers when planted about 
an inch with the compost. Instead of placing them all over the 
pot, which, when they bloom, conveys nothing to the mind of the 
artistic, place the requisite number of tubers—three, five, seven, &c., 
according to the size of the pot—with their growing ends inclining 
to the centre, and the root ends to the circumference of the pot, 
similar to the spokes in a carriage wheel; and then the specimen, 
although not so in reality, will convey the idea of a single plant, 
and not look like a number of plants crowded together. 
The soil should be light and rich ; three parts loam, three parts 
peat, one of leaf mould, one of old dry cowdung, mixed together, 
riddled with a fine sieve—not to use, but to discard the finer 
particles—and then adding one part of silver sand and one of broken 
charcoal, will grow them admirably ; placing the roughest part of 
the soil at the bottom, and covering the surface with the finer 
compost. Proportion the water to the growth. Where the roots 
have not reached the soil it must not be soaked. The whole family 
like heat, partial shade, and a moist atmosphere when growing. As 
the flowering state approaches inure them to more light and a drier 
atmosphere : neglect to do this, and you may have fine plants with 
clusters of tubers instead of blossoms. Nature, curbed in her 
efforts for reproduction one way, will attempt it by another. If 
you try them in dung frames extra care will be requisite, as the 
foliage will be injured if the steam and sun meet. Shade and air are 
the only remedies, or rather preventives. When they have flowered, 
and the foliage decayed, remove the tubers and preserve them in 
dry earth, or merely' turn the pots on their sides. They must never 
be exposed to frcst. Those started early this spring must be so 
employed next season ; the different successions should therefore 
be marked. I have found them extremely useful for decorating 
greenhouses during the summer and stoves in the autumn. In 
warm sheltered places some of them would even succeed for a time 
out of doors.—R. 
An old Orchid of no startling character, but when it is grown 
until the plants require 10-inch or 12-inch pots, and fill these 
well, it is very massive, particularly if each bears upwards of a 
hundred flowers. We have several plants like this, and they are as 
useful as any we possess at the present time. They are kept in a 
warm house in February, March, and April, hardened off in May, 
and stood in a cold frame from June until September, and when in 
flower we can let them remain in a room for six weeks without 
injury, but care is taken not to give them much water at the roots 
during that time.—M. 
ONCIDIUM FORBE3I. 
This beautiful Oncid is now flowering in the collection of 
E. G. Wrigley, Esq., "Victoria House, Dukinfield, where it is grown 
in a,n intermediate temperature. The plants are thriving in the 
ordinary teak baskets, and are flowering very freely, one plant 
carrying a spike of twenty-seven flowers. The sepals are obovate ; 
the petals are larger and much undulated, both being of a bright 
chestnut brown, broadly margined, with broken lines of golden 
yellow. The lip, which is clawed, is larger than the petals, and of 
the same colour and markings. This makes a good companion to 
0. crispum, though it exceeds that variety for beauty and size of 
flower.—H. Cooper. 
A FEW ANGR2ECUMS. 
One of the small forms of the genus Angraecum is A. Scotti- 
anum, but none the less pretty on that account for its distinctness 
from allied species, and the delicacy of the flowers impart con¬ 
siderable interest to the plant; yet it is still somewhat rare, and I 
have only seen specimens in a few of the largest collections, but 
that is probably due to the fact that it has not been in this country 
long enough to permit very extensive propagation. When better 
known it will no doubt be included in most collections of moderate 
extent, as it deserves the attention of all growers who do not limit 
themselves to the merely showy Orchids. It is epiphytal in habit, 
with narrow terete leaves, very dissimilar from most other Angrae- 
cums ; they are tapering or awl-shaped, about 4 inches long, and 
one-eighth to a quarter of an inch in diameter, channelled in the 
upper surface and ridged below. The flowers are of a moderate 
size, very delicate in texture ; the lip an inch or more across, pure 
white, with a narrow yellowish spur 3 to 4 inches long. The 
peduncle is slender and usually bears but one flower. The species 
is a native of the Comoro Islands, and I believe first flowered in 
this country at Walthamstow in 1878 in Mr. R. Scott’s collection 
of Orchids, and in honour of that gentleman it has received its 
name. 
A. pellucidum is from Sierra Leone, whence it was obtained by 
Messrs. Loddiges, and in their nursery it flowered in November, 
1842. The plant is of rather bold habit, with large bright green 
leaves frequently exceeding a foot in length. The flowers are 
white, of a delicate semi-transparent texture, having a finely fringed 
labellum, and are produced closely on racemes of moderate length. 
Liko the majority of species it usually flowers during the winter 
months, and thrives either on a block or in a basket suspended from 
the roof of a warm house. Though not by any means common it 
is fairly well known, and is included in most of the large trade 
collections. A coloured plate of it was published in the “ Botanical 
Register ” thirty-seven years ago, or about two years subsequent to 
its first flowering at Hackney. 
Like the last-mentioned, A. pertusum is a native of Sierra 
Leone, but I do not know to whom is due the credit of first intro¬ 
ducing it to England. It appears, however, to have been in 
cultivation several years before A. pellucidum, as it was sent to 
Kew about 1850 by Messrs. Jackson of Kingston, but had pre¬ 
viously flowered with Messrs. Loddiges, for it was noticed in 
Paxton’s “Magazine of Botany” in 1840. It is a very distinct 
form, with long narrow dark green leaves, and slightly nodding 
racemes G to 7 inches long of small closely placed creamy white 
flowers, which in their mode of arrangement are suggestive of 
Dendrochilum glumaceum. The spurs are comparatively short, 
and with ' a well-marked yellow tinge, which gives a peculiar 
appearance to the inflorescence. 
An interesting plant is A. distichum owing to the peculiar form 
and arrangement of the leaves, and the diminutiveness of the plant. 
It affords a very striking contrast compared with A. sesquipedale 
both in the size of the flowers and general appearance. While the 
latter has the largest flowers in the genus and order and is of bold 
habit, A. distichum possesses unusually small flowers, certainly 
among the smallest of the order ; and the short stems in tufts, 
with closely imbricated dark green leaves, still further add to its 
distinctiveness. In the habit of the plant there is little to suggest 
affinity with the Angraecums to casual observation, but there is a 
family likeness in the small white spurred flowers, which are pro¬ 
duced from the axils of the leaves. However, by some authorities, 
for instance by Reichenbach, I understand that it has been con¬ 
sidered sufficiently distinct to be assigned to another genus—namely, 
Aerantlrus, but the older name is still retained in the chief collec¬ 
tions, the other, Aeranthus distichus, being simply given as a 
synonym. The plant is found growing on the bark of trees in the 
neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, whence it was first imported by 
Messrs. Loddiges about 1835 ; so that it is an old inhabitant of our 
gaedens, though by no means well known, perhaps owing to its 
being more curious than beautiful, though the neatness of the 
plant will always ensure it some admirers.—G. 
EUCHARIS AND THE MITE. 
An article on the above subject by “ M. D.” in the Journal for 
October 24th, page 349, reminded me of a mental promise I had 
made to furnish the Editor with the details of a rather dearly 
bought experiment, and which, I think, will materially strengthen 
“ M. D.’s ” conclusion. We had a dozen 10-inch pots which for 
years were the picture of health ; the leaves were large and of a 
beautiful dark green ; the pots also were full of bulbs and roots, as 
they had not been potted for six years. Do what we would, how¬ 
ever, we could not induce them to throw up a number of flower 
spikes at one time, but only a few from each pot, and this at no 
definite time. They were grown in the stove with other plants, 
and when no young leaves were visible they were removed to a cool 
house and supplied with just sufficient water to preserve their 
leaves ; but this and various other means used to induce them to 
flower freely signally failed to do so. 
Under these circumstances we felt the plants were occupyirg 
valuable space without giving us adequate returns ; and that being 
a state of things we never intend to tolerate longer than we are 
