November 8,1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
421 
than probable that it will still continue facile jirincein of this 
section. 
In \\ hite edges the beit flower of the last few years, Mr. Horner’s 
Magpie, does not seem likely to be distributed just yet, and Wood- 
head’s Mrs. Dodwell is without doubt the best addition to this 
class that has been made lately. Woodhead’s George Rudd and 
Rachael are sometimes good white edges, but more often occupy 
that borderland where the edges are not either quite white or quite 
grey. Since the advent of Mrs. Potts, Heroine, and Black Bess 
there has been nothing remarkable to chronicle in the class of 
seifs, although in a batch of seedlings a great proportion of plants 
are sure to belong to it. With these, and such flowers as Guppin, 
Pizarro, and Lard of Lome, a grower may very well be contented 
to wait for anything better. 
Carnations and Picotees. 
My experience with these this year has been somewhat unusual* 
I grow mine in the open, and I have found great difficulty in getting 
the grass into a fit condition for layering. The continued rain kept 
it in a growing and “ lishy ” state, and it was not until very late 
that I could complete the layering ; the consequence is that I 
have been obliged to leave a number of the layers attached to the 
plants until the spring, and the ground is now in so wet and sodden 
a state that it is almost impossible to do anything. Where they 
have been grown in pots of course the case is entirely different, 
but while that mode of cultivation is in many respects preferable 
I have been obliged from want of time to give it up. Mr. Martin 
R. Smith was good enough to distribute amongst the members of 
the National Carnation and Picotee Society some packets of his 
carefully hybridised seed ; of these he sent me twenty seeds. 
Every seed germinated, and I have now a grand set of most 
healthy looking plants. It seems to me very doubtful whether 
I shall be able to make a bed of them this autumn, and 
if not I must leave them where they have been pricked out 
until the spring. I think it is by far the safest plan, even 
when these flowers are grown in the open, to keep them in small 
pots during the winter. Care should be taken that plants do not 
become damp, and so spot be engendered, which is the most fatal 
plague for them. As in the case of Auriculas, they should be kept 
dry, pots free from weeds, and but little water given during the 
next two months.—D,, Deal. 
Stanhopea Randi. 
This very distinct species was sent in alcohol, by E. S. Rand, 
Esq., Para, Brazil, who describes it as a very beautiful species, 
unlike any he has ever seen, and the only Brazilian one he knows 
which grows above the Amazonian delta. It is obviously allied to 
S. eburnea, Lindl., though the flowers are far smaller, and the fleshy 
part of the lip, formed by the united hypochil and mesochil, only half 
as long as in that species. The mouth is also reduced to a small 
transverse opening, half a line long by two lines broad, while the 
two horns are erect and situated at the extreme base. The flowers 
are described as ivory-white, with a faint shade of yellow on the 
lip, and very sweet-scented, with a perfume like “ winter-green.” 
The contraction of the mouth of the hypochil is evidently corre¬ 
lated in some way with the insect which fertilises the flower, as 
the cavity inside is crowded with small papillae, which Crueger has 
shown, in the case of an allied species, to be attractive to bumble 
bees, though here it is exceptionally well protected against 
mauraders by the contracted mouth and the two horns at the sides. 
It would be very interesting to ascertain what insect fertilises it. 
—(“ Kew Bulletin.”) 
Stanhopea nigeipes. 
This is a very handsome species, allied to S. Wardi, Lodcl., and 
S. Ruckeri, LmR., though markedly different in the details of the 
lip. The sepals and petals are yellow, with many small purple 
blotches, and the lip and column whitish yellow, with many small 
purple spots on the base, the epichil, the middle of the column, and 
lower part of the wings. According to the “ Kew Bulletin ” the 
hypochil bears a large, very dark purple black eye-like spot on 
either side, while the interior of the cavity is almost entirely of the 
same colour, in allusion to which the name is given. S. florida, 
Rchb.f., is also a near ally, but, besides differences in the lip, the 
ground colour of the flower is described as white. It was pur¬ 
chased at a sale in 1892, beyond which nothing is known of its 
origin. It flowered at Kew in August, 1893, and again a year 
later. 
SAPONARIA BOISSIERE 
The plant from which our engraving (fig. G5) was made flowered 
in the Alpine house at Kew last July. Not much is known 
of its history, except, as we are informed, that two specimens 
were sent over early in the year by Sunderman of Innsbruck, under 
this name, but how he came possessed of them is not known. 
Whether it is a garden hybrid or a new species has not yet been 
determined by English botanists, to whom the specific name is 
new. It is a very charming plant with bright pure pink petals 
the flowers in numerous clusters, borne upon prostrate stems. It is 
more dwarf than the allied S. ocymoides, which has been known in the 
rock garden for many years. Another species is S. csespitosa, which 
Fig. G5.—SAPONARIA BOISSIERT. 
bears its leaves in dense tufts. The English species is the common 
Soapwort (S. officinalis), found most plentifully in Devon and Corn¬ 
wall ; but also near dwellings in many other parts of Great Britain and 
Ireland, presumably as an escape from cultivation. S. vaccaria is also 
found occasionally wild in our southern cornfields, brought over from 
the continent with seed. 
RIPENED WOOD. 
I DO not purpose taking part in the present contention as to the 
ripening of wood or otherwise having effect upon fruit crops or 
the free flowering of shrubs and trees. I would, however, like 
“ Sceptic ” to say how it is that trees like Cupressus Lawsoniana, 
for example, are bearing such an exceptionally heavy crop of seed 
this year if it is not the ripening of the wood so perfectly during 
last autumn that is responsible ? I have just swept up off the path 
beside one of these trees fully a gallon of seed which the recent 
gale scattered on the ground below.—E. M. 
That is a transparent “ tale ” about the mealy bug that “ A 
Sceptic ” tells on page 402 last week. Of course he cannot expect any 
