February 10,1887. ] 
107 
JO URNAL OF HO T '"'IOULTUR 
wants only careful crossing of any existing best varieties to get line ex¬ 
hibition Hollyhocks again. 
My old friend, Mr. John Downie, will recollect one in particular of 
the famous Bishop Auckland Exhibition, August, 1863, where he and I 
were often judges together, when the late Mr. Harry May of Bedale 
took the first prize for twenty-four splendid cut blooms, the winner of 
the second prize being the Rev. E. Hawke, afterwards Lord Hawke, well 
known also afterwards at the northern exhibitions by the latter title ; 
Mr. May also taking the first prize for nine spikes. It was a wonderful 
display of Hollyhocks, and the competition was very keen indeed. 
Bishop Auckland, for a number of years, was a celebrated cut flower 
exhibitions, and Hollyhocks were in great favour until the fatal disease 
stamped them nearly out. There are hopeful signs of the Hollyhock 
being taken in hand again, for there are growers in the north of England 
who have already taken the flower up and exhibited good stands last 
autumn. The Scotch florists many years ago, from 1850 to a later 
period, grew the Hollyhock extensively and fully as well in every way 
as the English growers, and a few fine seedlings were raised, especially 
by Mr. John Laing, formerly of Dysart, and now of Forest Hill, 
London, and he could write a great deal about the Hollyhock if he liked, 
but the climate of the south of England was much more favourable for 
the ripening of seed than the more humid atmosphere of Scotland. 
The Hollyhock is easily cultivated from seed sown this spring, and 
strong plants can be had for blooming the following year, but the 
plants should be wintered in a sheltered place. Purchased plants 
should be planted out in April in well dug and well manured soil, 
loamy soil suiting best, and mulching liberally through the summer with 
decayed manure and watering freely. I hope that growers of this plant 
may be tempted through your columns to give a list of any good 
named sorts now in cultivation, and any information which may lead to 
renewed interest in this fine old garden plant.—W. D. 
LARGE GROS COLMAN GRAPES. 
The object of the original report was to ascertain whether any 
Grapes as large as that represented in Fig. 84 (December 23rd, 1886), 
had been seen before, and I should have been the reverse of sorry if 
even larger berries had been forthcoming. “ D. B.,” apparently without 
seeing my Gros Colman, takes upon himself to say that u he has this 
season seen many hundred bunches quite as large in berry,” but raises 
his staff to knock mine down to the level of ordinary productions. 
Able judges have pronounced ours the finest on record, and it is only 
reasonable to suppose better samples would have been seen at Kingston 
had they been so plentiful as “ D. B.” would have us believe. I am 
aware that I have been somewhat brief in my replies, because the 
sound of one’s own trumpet is not very sweet music. I have made the 
only admission required by confirming the original report. Our Gros 
Colmans are no myth, but realities. They have been before the public 
and appreciated, and I am thoroughly satisfied. The Vine is in perfect 
health, and quite as likely to produce as fine Grapes another season. 
I have taken the trouble to ascertain the number of 4-inch berries it 
would take to weigh .16 ozs., but cannot say how long it will take 
Mr. Stephen Castle to grow them.—J. H. Goodacre. 
[Mr. Goodacre is quite right in his statement that the berry was 
figured with the object of ascertaining if any larger l ad been grown, 
though he did not ask us to figure it. It is quite evident that further 
discussion now can have no substantial result, and it will be better 
to wait till next year, when the largest berries that can be sent to us 
by our correspondents shall be tested with the same weights and 
soales.] 
TWO GOOD LATE-BLOOMING CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
As good varieties of Chrysanthemums which produce late flowers 
are not over-plentiful, when such are found they should receive every 
encouragement. Happily the variety Golden Gem sent out and exhi¬ 
bited by Mr. R. Owen of Maidenhead was considered so good that first- 
class certificates were awarded to it both at South Kensington and at 
the midwinter show held by the National Chrysanthemum Society. It 
is difficult to define to which section it belongs, the Japanese or the 
reflexed. It seems to be a cross between the two. However, that is of 
small importance ; the quality of the variety as a late bloomer is the 
important point. It blooms very profusely, as its habit of growth is 
branching. The colour is a rich yellow, which deepens towards the 
centre, assuming an apricot tinge. Another good quality is it flowers 
freely in small pots under good cultivation. The other variety to which 
I refer is called Zephyr. It was sent to me under that name, but 
whether it is correct or not I cannot say. The National Societies’ 
Catalogue describes Zephyr as an incurved variety, salmon red and 
yellow in colour, while the one we have under that name is a Japanese 
variety of medium size, having long thread-like petals of the palest 
sulphur, so remarkable in colour that I have not seen anything ap¬ 
proaching it. In a natural manner the plant grows tall and blooms 
freely, but like many other good varieties does not produce shoots for 
cuttings plentifully, in fact it is very shy in this respect. At the 
present time, February 1st, it has blooms upon it which are very fair in 
quality. This speaks volumes for the variety here in the south of 
England so far.—E. Molyneux, 
E AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
CCELOGYNE CRISTATA. 
I CAN i fully endorse all that “A. B.” has advanced in his short note 
on the above. Ten years ago my employer brought a few pseudo-bulbs 
(not more than a dozen) from the north of England, small pieces torn 
from the sides of a large plant, without any soil and very few roots, but 
they made a very good start, flowering the following year, and each 
succeeding year has found them larger in size and with more flower 
spikes. The plant now fills an 18-inch flower pan, the pseudo-bulbs 
hanging over and nearly hiding the pan. This year there are fifty-one 
spikes, with an average of four flowers to a spike, and the foliage is very 
healthy. Six years ago my employer was so pleased with the progress 
it had made that he sent for the plant it was taken from, a large mass 
18 inches by 12, which had not been divided for years, and was growing 
in a basket made of wire netting, from which we had to disengage the 
plant with a pair of pliers. This we divided into six divisions, the largest 
now filling an 18-inch pan and has twenty-six spikes, three more in 
12-inch pans have forty spikes, and two smaller plants have eleven 
spikes—128 spikes in all, which, with an average of four flowers to a 
spike, gives over 500 flowers. 
The plants are growing in an intermediate house, amongst other 
plants which one expects to find in a mixed stove. The temperature 
has been very low during the winter months, falling to 50° nearly every 
night, and some nights during very severe weather it has reached as low 
as 45°; in fact, during the rainy weather which we experienced in 
November and December, I was almost at my wit's end to know what to 
do with them. I knew they wanted water, but was afraid to give it to 
them for fear the flower spikes should decay. I lost over twenty from 
drip, the house being very flat, and the rain beat under the laps, but 
there are plenty left to make a good display. The sun scarcely shines on 
the house for three months in the year, so they have not had the most 
favourable position to grow in. They are potted in a compost of fibry 
peat with the earthy particle; sifted out, a third of sphagnum, and 
nearly as much charcoal, with plenty of drainage at the bottom of the 
pans. They require an unlimited supply of water, with an occasional 
dose of weak liquid manure during the growing season, less as the 
pseudo-bulbs arrive at maturity, but they never ought to get dry at any 
time. Plenty of warmth in the summer with a liberal use of the syringe 
will do them no harm.—A. Whibley, Osborne House, Eastbourne. 
ODONTOGLOS3UH CERYANTESI. 
This useful little Orchid is a great favourite with us, and we have a 
dozen plants now flowering profusely. Amongst these are several dis- 
Fig. 17.—Odontoglossnna Ceivantesi decorum. 
tinct varieties, but one of the best closely resembles O. Cervantesi 
decorum (fig. 17). It is very symmetrical in form, the concentric 
brownish bars on the sepals and petals being clearly marked and con¬ 
trasting well with the pure white ground. The cool house suits this 
plant admirably, and we find that they thrive best in small shallow 
pans, such as are frequently employed now for Orchids that do not re¬ 
quire great root space.—O. R. S. 
CALAN THES DEGENERATING. 
The L dure of Calanthes during the past few years has not been 
confine go the inexperienced. I have observed that when extr 
stren n has been developed and the pseudo-bulbs have attained an 
inc-i. ense size they almost certainly fail as rapidly as they had been de- 
V ..oped. Many reasons have been advanced for the failure ; in some 
