February £0, 1890. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
119 
■dependent for their activity and being on moisture, the necessity of 
"water to crops in full swing will be emphasised.' Speaking from 
^xperience, I believe the most important agent to successful out¬ 
door culture during hot weather is an unlimited and easily acces¬ 
sible supply of water. No matter how fertile the soil may be, 
or however abundantly it may be supplied with fertilisers, an 
insufficiency of moisture will render these absolutely without any 
^ood effect. "While, on the other hand, with abundance of water 
fertilisers may be used to the utmost extent, and the crops be 
oenefited in the proportion they and water are employed. I will 
■close this paper by drawing attention to a point long ago noted by 
chemists, and for a much longer period known and acted on by 
gardeners—viz., that young plants require very liberal treatment, 
■quick healthy robust growth in the earlier stages laying the founda- 
■iion for a big harvest.—B. 
s 
OdONTOGLOSSUM SCIlRCEDEEIANUM. 
Several orchidist friends have communicated with me respect¬ 
ing the above-named Odontoglossum, of which an illustration was 
incorporated in my notes on hybrid Orchids last week. Mr. F. 
■Sander of St. Alban? points out that Professor Reichenbach was 
undoubtedly wrong in regarding this as a natural hybrid, for it is as 
much entitled to be considered a true species as many others in the 
^enus. Then came a pleasant letter from M. Grodefroy-Lebeuf of 
Argenteuil, editor of Le Jar din, in which he says, “I do not know 
why Reichenbach regarded this as a hybrid. He could not ignore 
"the locality it comes from, and what he says about the plant is 
■obscure. O. Sohroederianum is a true species, and it is found in 
places where 0. tripudians and 0. Pescatorei have never grown. I 
know the place, but it is a secret that I cannot divulge.” The last 
statement about the locality in which the plant is found is interest¬ 
ing, and certainly appears to be conclusive as to its non-hybrid 
•origin. 
A Gig.antic Orchid. 
Mr. F. S.S.NDER of Sfc. Albans calls my attention to the fol¬ 
lowing letter, which recently appeared in a London daily paper, 
from Mr. Arthur Keyser, Kwala Kubu, Ulu Selangor, Selanga, 
Straits Settlements : —It may interest some of your readers to 
hear of one of the largest Orchids that has ever been seen in this 
■country. I noticed it on a very high tree (Durian treel, while 
•riding some fourteen miles from my house. It formed a complete 
•circle round the tree. The Durian fruit being much valued by the 
Malays, I was not inclined to purchase the entire tree for the sake 
■of the Orchid, and, therefore, perhaps did not obtain it in as good 
-condition as I otherwise could have done. I ordered the plant to 
be scraped off, and brought to my garden. It is 7 feet 2 inches 
Siigh, and feet across. It has seven spikes of flowers, the 
largest 8 feet 6 inches long. The flowers are dark brown spotted 
with yellow. It is very seldom that a European visits this part of 
■the State. The Orchid does not get as much admiration as it 
deserves, the Malays thinking my appropriation of it a rather 
insane proceeding, as the blooms are not good to eat.” It may be 
.•a species of Grammatophyllum. 
Cypripedium tessellatum porphyreum. 
“Orchid Aii.vrEUR” writes for information respecting the 
;above Cypripedium, and says, “ I have heard or read that it is one 
■of the most distinct in colour of the whole family.” We repro- 
■duce the illustration (fig. 2.3) as a guide to the form of the flower, 
and we may add with regard to the colour that our correspondent 
has been rightly informed, for it is very remarkable. The hybrid 
was obtained from a Cypripedium concolor crossed with C. bar- 
hatum, the floral form showing the characters of the former, and 
the colour partakes of that of the latcer parent. It is, however, a 
peculiarly rich purplish rose tint unequalled in its way by any ocher 
form in the genus, and it is strange that the deep tints of 
C. barbatum should have been brightened and enriched to such an 
extent by a cross with a yellow flowered species. In Messrs. B. S. 
Williams & Son’s Nursery, Upper Holloway, this has been grown 
with much success, and a capital example was shown by that firm 
at the Royal Horticultural Society’s meeting in October, 1888. It 
is surprising iliat it has never been included amongst the many 
handsome Cypripsdiums represented in the “Orchid Album.”— 
Lewis Castle. 
Orchids at Highbury, near Birmingham. 
The Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P., on his arrival from 
the land of the Pharaohs, found a good display of his favourite 
flowers, for the Orchid show house is very gay just now, and there 
is a good sprinkling of bloom in the other houses. Cattleyas are 
numerous, amongst them Triance alba ; Warscewiezi delicata, a fine 
form of Trianse albi ; Cattleya Corning!, a pale variety of Trianaj, 
with a blue lilac tint in the labellum. Oncidium splendidum is 
very fine, so also are Dendrobiums Ainsworthi, Leechianum, and 
Pierardi latifolium, and Odontoglossum Edwardi. Coelogyne 
Lemoniana is a charming Orchid, of closer habit, and a little smaller 
in the flowers than C. cristata, with a bright lemon blotch in the 
labellum ; Phalsenopsis Stuartiana, is distinct ; Odontoglossum 
Roezli album, and a fine variety of Roezli, and Acineta Barker! are 
amongst those in flower. Mr. Woodfield has the Orchids well in 
hand, and plenty of bloom will now be the order of the day.— 
D. S. H. 
C(EL0GYNE CRISTATA. 
Large pans frequently become crowded with pseudo-bulbs in 
the centre to such an extent that these rarely develope to a size 
strong enough to flower profusely. When plants are in this con¬ 
dition and it is not desirable to break them up the only course is to 
thin them. It may be necessary to remove a few old pseudo-bulbs 
so that small pieces can be cut out, being careful not to injure the 
roots of those remaning. The holes should be filled with fibry peat, 
and the leads carefully drawn from where they are crowded and 
pegged over the vacant places. At the end of one year the pan will 
be covered with large pseudo-bulbs. It is surprising what a stock 
of plants can be raised by this method in a few yean. Large 
specimens judiciously thinned every second or third year can be 
kept in good condition, and will flower freely if the pseudo-bulbs 
are well grown and matured. 
The growths wiU be small the first year, but they will develope 
to a fair size in the second, and soon make good flowering plants. 
All the best pieces should be placed in pans and pots by themselves. 
Those with no prominent leads may be pegged on the surface of 
pots or pans nearly filled with crocks. They should be given very 
little material in the first season until they are established. Healthy 
fresh pieces with leads should have the pots about one-third filled 
■with drainage. The pseudo-bulbs must not be buried in the com¬ 
post : itheir rhizomes should be pegged on the surface, and after 
they commence growing place a little living sphagnum moss 
on the surface. Coelogynes do well in fibry peat and por¬ 
tions of charcoal. For a long time ■we have used moss only on 
FIG. 23. —CYPRIPEDIUM TESSELLATUM POYPHYEEUM, 
