1:8 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ r e 1>rn ar y 14, jS89. 
that if this subject was taken up largely by your correspondents 
the object might be accomplished.—R. M. 
s 
CIRRHOPETALCJM CUMINGI. 
What are termed “curiosities” in the Orchid family are by no 
means scarce, but there is somewhat of the inclination to stigmatise 
plants in this way, as an indication they possess no beauty or value. 
FIG. 20. — CIREHOPETALTJM CUJIINGI. 
Some of these are, however, worth attention for other qualities 
than mere singularity of structure, and the Cirrhopetalum, illus¬ 
trated in fig. 20, is an example of this. There is something very 
attractive in its quaint form, distinct even among such well-marked 
plants as Orchids. 
Sir Joseph Hooker has given an excellent description of this 
Orchid, which may be reproduced here :—“ Notwithstanding that 
this most lovely Orchideous plant has been known in our collections 
since 1841, when it flowered with the Messrs. Loddiges, it has never 
yet been figured. It is one of the many rarities imported from the 
Philippine Islands by Mr. Cuming, after whom it has been named 
by Dr. Lindley. The extreme regularity with which the flowers are 
arranged in the depres ed umbel, spreading in a circle or a semi¬ 
circle, and the large size and position of the lateral sepals (not the 
labellum as stated in ‘ Paxton’s Magazine of Botany’) are not the 
least remarkable peculiarities about this plant. It flowers readily 
in the early spring. Description : Pseudo-bulbs small, oval or 
oblong, monophyllous, sheathed, with a large membranaceous scale, 
and arising from a creeping caudex, with a few fibrous roots thrown 
out from beneath the pseudo-bulbs. Leaf solitary from the apex 
of the pseudo-bulb, 3 to 4 inches long, oblong or elliptical, cori¬ 
aceous, nerveless, tapering at the base into a very short petiole. 
Scapes solitary, slender, filiform, red, bearing about two minute 
sheathing scales, and arising from the base of the pseudo-bulb. 
Flowers most beautifully and regularly arranged in a radiating, 
almost exactly circular, umbel, all on the same plane, and of a rich 
warm red-purple colour. Pedicels very short, all equal in length, 
and, as well as the ovary, red, with minute green bracteoles at the 
base. Sepals very unequal : superior one small, ovate, concave, 
very much and narrowly acuminated, fringed with long glandular 
hairs ; lateral sepals an inch long, linear-oblong, shortly acuminate, 
projecting forward, and having a peculiar twist at the base, which 
brings the outsides of these two sepals on the same plane, their 
inner edges meeting together like the elytra or wing-cases of some 
insect of the Buprestis kind, and which gives a very peculiar appear¬ 
ance to the flowers. Petals rather smaller than the superior sepal, 
but otherwise exactly resembling it, and fringed in like manner 
with glandular hairs. Lip small in proportion to the size of the 
flower, thick, fleshy, tongue-shaped, obtuse, having two erect plates 
or ridges on the disc, bent down in the upper half, the base articu¬ 
lated on the decurrent base of the column, which has there a peculiar 
upward curvature. Column short and thick, the sides projecting 
in the form of wings. Anther-case a little sunk into the top of the 
column. Pollen-masses in two oval pairs.” 
STARTING CALANTHES INTO GROWTH. 
The time has arrived when all Calanthes should be started into 
growth, and their perfect success pr failure depends to a very great 
extent on their treatment. We have known splendid pseudo-bulbs 
spoiled by a bad start, in one case in particular, where the pseudo¬ 
bulbs were potted, immediately watered, and kept so constantly ; 
but it did not suit them, as the roots were long in forming. When 
they pushed forth they were few and weak ; they continued sickly 
all the season, and at the end of it the new pseudo-bulbs were 
extremely poor, and had little resemblance to their parents of the 
previous spring. This, I need hardly say, is a manner of starting 
Calanthes that should never be practised ; but if a layer of sphagnum 
or other moss is placed at the bottom of some shallow boxes, the 
pseudo-bulbs placed upright on this, a little more moss packed 
between to make them stand, and then placed in a temperature of 
65° or 70°, but sparingly watered, they will soon root freely, and 
send out strong healthy side shoots that will form the pseudo-bulbs 
for flowering ; next, as soon as they are fairly started, they should 
be taken from the box without injuring the roots and potted. Some 
of the moss will adhere to the roots, but this will not do them any 
harm, particularly if it is sphagnum. The potting material should 
be rough, and they should be put into pots that will admit of their 
being repotted into larger ones later on.—M. M. 
NOTES ON EARLY ENGLISH HORTICULTURE. 
(Continued from page- 70.) 
When Gerard, the illustrious botanist and Horticulturist, went 
from his own house in Holborn to the garden of his friend and 
employer, Lord Burleigh, situate in the Strand, he probably passed, 
not unfrequently, the spot now occupied by the office of this 
Journal, and hence familiar, by name at least, to gardeners through¬ 
out this island. At that time, if Fleet Street had not a line of 
offices and shops, it was hardly to be called rural; but the Strand 
kept much the aspect of a country lane, with detached mansions, 
having, some of them, extensive gardens, the residences of nobles 
and church dignitaries. Lord Burleigh was one of the peers who 
had a taste for horticulture, and benefited by Gerard’s enterprise in 
obtaining or producing new plants, and owing to this connection 
subsequently he rented from Queen Anne, consort of James I., a 
plot of about two acres east of Somerset House, this being granted 
to him for a sum merely nominal, because of his skill in “ planting, 
nursing, and preserving” of plants, and in consideration of his 
supplying to Her Majesty, from time to time, herbs, flowers, and 
fruits—vegetables are not specified. Gerard was also surgeon 
to the King ; nominally he was a barber-surgeon, the occupations 
being associated, though even then the practice was going into dis¬ 
use, but he does not appear to have ever handled the barber’s 
razor ; probably he also much preferred to exercise the knife upon 
trees and shrubs rather than on the human subject. 
Much more interest, however, attaches itself to Gerard's 
