1881 . ] 
MORICANPIA SONOHIFOLIA.—HOW TO FLOWER VANPA TERES. 
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wintered in frames, than if potted up early in 
the season. 
My remarks refer to the Neapolitan, but the 
Victoria Regina and the Czar are well worth 
treating in the manner I have endeavoured to 
describe.-— George Potts, Jun., Epsom. 
MORICANDIA SONOHIFOLIA. 
showy hardy annual, which is a 
7 native of Northern China, was discovered 
and described nearly fifty years ago by 
the traveller Bunge, but has only recently 
found its way into our gardens. It is of erect 
habit, with leafy stems, and racemes of pale 
violet or mauve coloured flowers, as large as 
those of a single Wallflower. Being quite 
hardy, and of the easiest cultivation, it will 
probably establish itself as a favourite border 
annual. 
The plant grows from one to two feet in 
height, and is of slender branching habit. The 
lower or root-leaves, which soon die away, are 
lyrately-pinnatifid, with a cordate terminal lobe; 
while the stem leaves are obovate-oblong or 
panduriform, all of them sessile and acutely au- 
ricled at the base. The flowers grow in rather 
open terminal racemes, several inches in length, 
and are each upwards of an inch across, consist¬ 
ing of four roundish-ovate clawed petals, of a 
bright and delicate tint of bluish-violet; these 
flowers are produced in succession, owing to the 
branching habit of the plant. It is rather a 
desirable addition to the annuals of the 
cruciferous order, being showy and distinct in 
colour ; and may be sown with other hardy 
annuals at onco in the open border about 
March or April.—-T. M. 
HOW TO FLOWER VANDA 
TERES. 
T is well known that Vanda teres has 
cylindrical articulated stems, furnished 
at each node with a cylindrical leaf, 
and with a close sheath which envelops each 
internode. The floral scapes and the branches 
both start from the node immediately below 
the leaf, the latter in July or August, and the 
former in March or April. When either of 
these two growths is about to start, the leaf- 
sheath splits longitudinally, to make way for it. 
If a stem of this Vanda is cut through, it 
will be seen that at every node, without excep¬ 
tion, there exists, at the place just pointed out, 
a latent eye, which starts from its lethargy 
when any cause provokes its awakening. To 
bring about this, it is only necessary to split, 
with the point of a penknife, the sheath of the 
leaf, just above the eye that one wishes to stai't, 
as it would itself do, if left to set itself in 
action. This delicate operation, however, re¬ 
quires dexterity, because, if the instrument 
penetrates too deeply, it may wound the eye, and 
thus cause it to miscarry; and if the sheath is 
not completely pierced through, the operation is 
without result. Already, I had said ( Orchid ., 
p. 509) :—“ A remarkable fact, of which I 
had suspicion, and which two years’ experience 
has confirmed, is, that the growth of this plant 
resembles that of fruit-trees. In these, the eye 
which has just shot forth can, according to the 
quantity of sap made to flow towards it, become 
a flower-bud or a wood-bud. In the Vanda , 
if, when the scapes begin to break through in 
spring, the plant is submitted to a degree of 
atmospheric humidity sufficient to cause its 
tissues to swell, they become converted into 
