1884 .] 
CATTLEYA SKINNERI,-ROSES IN THE NORTH, 1883. 
7 
of gold, lighten up a long corridor to great 
advantage, and are always clean-looking and 
beautiful. There is no filth generated, no 
insects to trouble the gardener, and the plant 
bears a little darkness better than most of its 
compeers in the climbing way. The glass 
used by Mr. Ward is ribbed, and 26 oz. to the 
foot. In summer the leaves don’t get scorched 
by excessive sunlight, the minute corrugation 
and the dimming of the transparency being 
perfect antidotes to sunburn; and then in 
these dark leaden days, the plant with its 
beautiful garniture seems to bear the want of 
light which this season of the year always 
brings with it. The Camellias are not incom¬ 
moded by it, only it is right to say that the 
festoons in that house are kept within limits— 
that is, that they hang down from the wall 
and gable-sides, and form a beautiful tracery 
as a background for the Camellias. 
The fruits produced by a plant of such a size 
as the one in question are numerous, and 
highly ornamental too, hanging down, quite 
as large and better formed than any of our 
Passion-flower fruits, and springing from an 
ornamental-veined receptacle as flat as a saucer 
and a capital pattern for those that deal in the 
formation of those useful domestic articles.— 
J. Anderson, Meadow Bank. 
CATTLEYA SKINNERI. 
HE well-known Cattleya Skinneri is best 
grown in a pot or basket, with good 
fibrous peat and sphagnum moss, the 
pots being filled three-parts full of 
drainage, and then filled up with rough peat, 
placing some pieces of charcoal amongst it to 
keep it open and porous—for the roots will 
run freely among the charcoal. In the growing 
season the soil requires to be kept rather moist, 
but the plant does not like too much water 
about its roots at any time. It is best to be 
grown near the light, with a little shade when 
the sun is hot, the shading not being required 
at any other time. We find the warm end of 
the Cattleya house to suit it, as it requires 
more warmth than some of the other Cattleyas. 
When the growth is finished in autumn very 
little water should he given, and during winter 
only just sufiicient must be allowed to keep 
the stems plump, until they begin to throw 
up their flower spikes in March, when a little 
more may be supplied to assist the flowers in 
opening and to secure finer blossoms. 
The plants begin to grow after their flower¬ 
ing season is over, which is the best time for 
division if it is required. It is, however, best 
to avoid cutting the plants as much as possible, 
as sometimes the divided pieces will not suc¬ 
ceed well, especially if the plant is not strong 
and vigorous. When divided, place them in a 
shady, moist place until they get established, 
after which they may be removed to a position 
more freely exposed to the light. — B. S. Wil¬ 
liams, Victoria Nursery, Holloway. 
ROSES IN THE NORTH, 1883. 
HE past summer and autumn have been 
exceptionally well suited for Rose grow¬ 
ing in the open air in this northern part 
of the kingdom, and the large fine and 
healthy foliage has maintained its vigour 
throughout. The larva of the sawfly, which 
eats the leaf-surface, and gives the whole 
plant an unsightly appearance, in addition to 
weakening growth, was only seen on two or 
three plants. Mildew, a common parasite on 
the Rose family, has also been little seen. 
But the most remarkable feature in this year’s 
growth was the almost entire absence of the 
common aphis or green blight, not only from 
the Rose section of plants, but also from the 
Plums, both on walls and standards and from 
other sorts of trees usually aflected. It is 
not easy to account for this through any 
striking difierence of weather during early 
growth in the spring months, unless it was 
from the efi’ects of the severe storm of frost 
and snow, which lasted here without inter¬ 
mission from March 6 to March 31. The 
last two or three days of February and the 
first four in March were unnaturally warm 
for the period, the thermometer in the shade 
reaching to 61-2 degrees. This high tempera¬ 
ture may have stimulated the embryos of these 
little pests into active life, while the protracted 
cold above mentioned may have checked their 
further development and proved the gardener’s 
friend, as it manifestly was in the case of 
retarding fruit-tree blossoms. Such is my 
theory to account for the clean bill of health 
in the gardens here. No such severity of 
weather has occurred in Britain during the 
same months since the year 1854. 
