December 5.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
145 
support of our opinion, but to insert them would exceed 
our limited space. 
But whether the nectarine was known or unknown to 
the ancients, it is quite certain that it was not introduced 
here before the end of the 10th centiuy; for none of our 
oldest writers, though they mention fully the peach, take 
any notice of the nectarine; and Parkinson, in 1029, is 
the first to speak of the Nucipersica, or “ Nectorin," add¬ 
ing, “ though they have been with us not many years, 
yet have they been known in Italy to Mattbiolus (who 
died in 1577), and others before him. They knew no 
other than the Yellow nectorin, but we, at tbis day, do 
know five several sorts of nectorins — the Musk, the 
Roman Red, the Bastard Red, the Yellow, the Green, 
and the White.” 
The nectarine belongs to the Natural Order of Almond- 
worts (Drupacece), and to the 12 -Icosandria 1-Monogynia 
of Liunasus. Modern botanists have formed a new 
genus for it and the peach, to which they have given the 
name of Persica. Whether it was right, for some trivial 
difference, to separate these fruits from the almond, 
Amygdalus, admits of great doubt; but upon what 
ground it can be defended calling the nectarine a species 
(Persica leevif), when it is notorious that the same twig 
sometimes bears both peaches and nectarines, and at 
others a fruit half nectarine and half peach, we have yet 
to learn. It is equally notorious, that even when in 
bloom the nectarine cannot be distinguished from the 
peach by any specific marks of difference. 
I'iUN'OED-LirpKD Catasetum (Catasetum Jimbriutum ).— 
Annals de Oand., t. 231.— Paxton's Flower Garden, vol.i., 
p. 124.— Catasetum is derived from kata, downward, and 
seta, a bristle, referring to the position of the horn-like 
processes on the column; flmbriatum, fringed, refers to 
the fringe-like edges of the labellum, or lip, of the flower. 
The genus furnishes the name of a small group of the 
Vanda section of orchids, Catasetulai. The nearest alli¬ 
ances of Catasetum are Mo modes and Clowesia. Every 
distinctive feature, except that derived from the pollen 
masses, which has hitherto been adopted by botanists as 
the foundation of a proper or natural classification of 
these strange-looking flowers, has broken down in succes¬ 
sion, as anomalous forms have successively appeared. 
Orchids are remarkable as much for the variety of the 
odours they possess as for the unusual configuration of 
their irregular flowers, and the transformation of the 
different parts of the flower in different genera. But 
that which, more than any other, startled the ideas of 
botanists, and shook to the foundation their views of the 
soundness of genera and species, was first observed in 
this genus, Catasetum, by Sir Robert Schomburgk, and 
described by him a few years since in the Linncean 
Transactions, vol. xvii., p. 551. This was no less than 
as if the flower-spike of a hyacinth had furnished at one 
and the same time samples of such flowers as those of 
Agapanthus and Day lily, or of the Tuberose or Asphodel, 
or, indeed, of any of the lily order in affinity with it. 
Upon the flower-spike of a Catasetum with which Sir 
Robert met in Demerara were flowers of Myanthus bar- 
batus, Monachantlius viridis, and true flowers of Cata¬ 
setum ! Since then we have been made familiar with 
similar instances under cultivation at home. 
No orchids are more easy to manage than those asso¬ 
ciated with Catasetums, as instanced above, to which we 
may add Cyrtopodium and Cycnoches, or the Swan-neck 
orchid, which complete the section. But it is of little 
use to talk of sections when every new freak in any 
new plant of a section may chance to break down the 
limits of either section or genus; nevertheless, the 
orchids seem much better assorted than many families 
which have been arranged by successive writers since 
the days of Linnaeus—the lilies for instance. 
The Fringed-lipped Catasetum is a stove terrestrial 
orchid, a native ot' the marshes in Villa Franca, near 
Brazil, from whence it was introduced in 1847 by M. de 
Jonghe, of Brussels. It flowers about August. The 
pseudo-bulbs are longish egg-shaped, producing leaves 
shaped like those of the willow, but plaited; the flowers 
grow in drooping clusters, on a stalk springing from 
beneath a pseudo-bulb; their sepals are shaped some¬ 
what like the leaves, as are their petals, but these lie 
close to the upper sepal, and are rather broader and 
shorter than the sepals; the labellum, or lip, is heart- 
shaped, with a fringed edge, and a blunt spiu- behind. 
The sepals and petals are pale purplish pink, spotted 
with red, and the lip in one variety (Heynderycxii) 
creamy white, with a blush of pink; but in another 
variety (Legrellii) it is greenish white. 
The Sago Palm (Cycas revoluta). — Gardeners' Mag. 
of Botany, vol. ii., p. 172.— Cycas is the Greek name for 
a palm, and revoluta, or rolling back, refers to the 
position of the leaflets or side divisions of the feather¬ 
like leaves. It belongs to a small order of plants called 
after this genus Cycads (Cycadaceee), and to Dicecia, the 
22nd class of the Linnaean system, having the male 
organs on one plant and the female ones on another. 
There is no trace in the order of what is usually called a 
flower, and the fruit is produced in large cones, which 
rise from the top of the column in the middle of the 
J waving plume-like leaves. These cones are in all respects 
