January 13, 1887. 3 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
27 
the protector should be tied to a thin stick, and the stick be tied 
above and below the protector boards. There is also this advantage 
with a protector, the sun and light draw the blooms to the front 
of the spike, a matter of no small importance on the exhibition 
stand.—J. 0. 
VICTORIA REGIA. IN THE OPEN AIR. 
We have read Mr. Thomas’s very interesting letter in your issue 
of the 6th inst. respecting the Victoria regia at Chatsworth. He 
is quite right in supposing that it can be grown in heated tanks out 
of doors. It was so grown, and we believe for the first time in 
England, in the year 1851, by Mr. John Weeks, the founder of our 
firm. At that time he had an experimental nursery in the King’s 
Road, Chelsea, the same now occupied by Mr. Bull, and in an out¬ 
side tank at that establishment he flowered the Victoria regia. 
Some of the flowers, of which there were upwards of fifty, were 
exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and again at the Royal 
Horticultural Society, and Mr. Weeks obtained a silver Banksian 
medal as stated in the Journal of Horticulture of October 23rd, 1851. 
It was generally considered to be a great achievement, and the late 
Prince Consort honoured the place with a visit of inspection. The 
tank, which was about 20 feet in diameter, is not now in existence 
having been recently removed to make room for Mr. Bull’s new 
Orchid houses. The water in it was warmed by a series of hot-water 
pipes. It was just about this time that Mr. J. Weeks introduced 
his celebrated “ One Boiler System,” and in order to illustrate the 
feasibility and advisability of the arrangement, the pipes warming 
the tank were not provided with a separate boiler, but were merely 
attached to the existing system of pipes warming the hothouses.— 
J. Weeks & Co., King’s Road, Chelsea. 
GROS COLMAN GRAPE. 
It is somewhat difficult to understand the remarks of your corre¬ 
spondent, “ D. B.,” upon fig. 84 of your Journal for December 23rd, 
when he says he has had so many opportunities of measuring berries of 
Gros Colraan equally fine. It is to be regretted he has neglected to 
put them in the scales and satisfied himself as to the correctness of your 
report. I did not at first notice so closely that they were so far above the 
ordinary production until I began to receive many letters (about thirty) 
some from strangers, all praising them highly. 
I have not entered my Grapes against those of Mr. Thomson that I 
am aware of, and as that gentleman has retired from exhibiting, I 
suppose I never shall, so much the better for me. I am told by quite a 
disinterested person that Mr. Thomson had some fine berried Gros 
Cjlman at Kingston, hut they bore no comparison to those we exhibited 
at the Royal Aquarium, Westminster. The foreman here tells me the 
nearest approach to our Gros Caiman he had seen the whole season was 
shown at York, the exhibitor’s name he does not know. 
There are tons of Grapes grown for market in the neighbourhood of 
Derby, and fine ones, too ; one grower alone has three span houses, each 
about 100 yards long, full of Gros Colman—a fine sight, but I find none 
to approach the size of ours. We have a formidable rival with Gros 
Colman in Mr. Elphinstone, who has taken more first prizes for this 
Grape than any other grower. An odd rod or two of Gros Colman, a3 is 
generally seen in gentlemen’s gardens (let them be ever so fine) is but an 
insignificant sight compared to a larg; house of ordinary Gros Colman as 
grown for market : hut when they reach the high standard of those I saw 
at Chiswick a few years ago they are a sight not easily forgotten.—J. H. 
Goodacbe, Elvaston. 
Being a little curious to-day, at random I cut a berry of Gros 
Colman, which measured fully 4 inches round, and weighed half an ounce 
only. I have not yet gone into this matter fully, but intend to. I have 
larger individual berries, but not to be compared with the berry figured in 
the Journal recently. I intend weighing not only a few bunches, hut also 
counting the berries. My largest bunch in the room is 3f lbs.— Stephen 
Castle. 
ROSES THE BRIDE AND GRAND MOGUL. 
1 AM delighted to have it, on Mr. William Paul’s authority, that 
Grand Mogul is a seedling, and not a sport from A. K. Williams. From 
what report it got recorded as the latter in my new Rose note-book, 
wherein I record the novelties that I either see or hear about during the 
season, I do not recall ; but for reasons both general and personal I am 
glad to find it was a mistake. Beyond this, what is meant by my 
“ endeavouring to damn (Ob, Mr. Paul 1) these two Roses with faint 
praise ” I am at a Iosb to conceive ; but I suppose parental affection can 
never be reckoned with. 
Mr. Paul’s whole letter on page 16 is so quaintly contradictory that 
for the sake of the two Roses in question, for both of which I have 
already expressed my admiration, it will be better to say nothing further, 
especially as it is evident from his last paragraph that Mr. William Paul 
has undertaken the rSle of moqucvr, and is therefore privileged to take 
his sport in wrapping his bit of grain in a bundle of chaff.—T. W. 
GlEDLESTONE. 
TRICHOCENTRUM ALBO-PURPUREUM. 
Few species of Trichocentrum are known, and these are natives 
of South America, chiefly in Brazil, where they are found as epi¬ 
phytes, several possessing but little beauty to recommend them to 
collectors. There are, however, two that may be grown with advantage, 
one being T. tigrinum, the red-spotted leaves of which have been 
aptly compared to those of a miniature Oncidium Lanceanurn, and 
the other T. albo-purpureum, represented in the illustration (fig. 5). The 
latter is a very desirable plant, as it is easily grown, and flowers freely, 
the distinct colouring of the flowers rendering if notable in a collection. 
It is of dwarf habit, the leaves varying from 3 to 6 inches long and about 
1 inch broad, with short ovoid pseudo-bulbs. The flowers are produced 
singly on short peduncles, the sepals and petals of equal size, brownish on 
the inner surface and greenish on the outward side ; the lip is large com¬ 
pared with the other portion of the flower, and very conspicuous, the 
centre and greater part white, with a bold blotch of purplish crimson on 
each side. It can be grown on bio ks, in baskets, or shallow pots, and 
the temperature at the cool end of the intermediate house, or the warmest 
part of the house. T. albo-purpureum was found by Linden near the Rio 
Negro in North Brazil. 
A SUPPOSED USEFUL ORCHID FUNGUS. 
It is not customary to regard the various fungi which attack plants as 
cultivators’ assistants, and in too many cases we have painful evidence 
that these minute parasitic forms of vegetation are amongst the worst of 
our enemies. A continental observer has, however, recently been in¬ 
vestigating the nature of some fungi found on the roots of Orchids, and 
has discovered that not only are the plants uninjured by their presence, 
but it is supposed that they actually assist the Orchid in assimilating the 
food supplies. It is said that “the fungus appears in the outer cells of 
