October 31, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
139 
entirely covered a lmge space under an enormous spread¬ 
ing horse-chestnut; and yearly, by means of the roots 
which it sends out in plenty, and so forms new tubers, 
it extends its borders. When in full flower iu the 
spring it was a sight long to be remembered. The 
leaves of the tree falling in autumn, overspread the 
surface, and decaying in winter, made rich leaved mould 
that proved a valuable fertilizer. I once saw, in a 
country rectory, how the roots of this plant had thrust 
their way from the flower-border, under a grass virge, 
into the gravelled drive, and in spring they were seen to 
thrust themselves through the gravel drive in con¬ 
siderably large quantities, and there they bloomed and 
felt as much at home as in the soil of the border. Now 
is the time to plant.. The roots can be purchased at a 
very cheap rate, and soon establish themselves in good 
garden soil.— B. D. 
Callicarpa purpurea.— In showing the fine 
specimen standard they did of this fine ornamental 
plant, Messrs. Veitcli and Sons did justice to a some¬ 
what neglected subject, too much neglected rve fear 
because it is a valuable ornamental subject at this 
season of the year. There is a significance in the 
generic name Callicarpa, it comes from Jcalos, beautiful, 
carpos, fruit, referring to the beautiful berries. The 
genus comprises several species, but the only one culti¬ 
vated is the East Indian C. purpurea. As was seen at 
South Kensington, a large specimen takes on a pendant 
habit of growth, and the shoots become laden with 
dense clusters of glossy lilac-purple berries, borne in 
the axils of the current year’s shoots ; hut to do it 
justice, it should be well grown. It is with much 
truth that Mr. B. S. Williams states in regard to this 
valuable plant, “that through bad management and 
neglect, many plant growers have been led to discard 
it as worthless, but this is certainly a mistake. ” It is a 
winter-berrying plant, and therefore it is a valuable aid 
in the stove during what we regard as the dull season 
of the year. “The soil,” says Mr. Williams, “best 
adapted for its growth, is a mixture of loam and 
peat in equal parts, with a little sand added. If care 
is taken to train the plants in a compact form, they 
make some of the most attractive objects which can be 
had during winter for decorating either the stove or 
the conservatory. ”— R. D. 
Chou de Gilbert. —We have now growing in our 
quarter of Brussels Sprouts, a plant precisely similar in 
every respect to that shown as Chou de Gilbert on the 
13th inst. at South Kensington, and to which the Fruit 
Committee awarded a First Class Certificate. It has 
the elongated Cabbage-like head, very white, and with 
sprouts growing round the base ; and is a perfect coun¬ 
terpart to those shown at Kensington under the above 
name.— C. Herrin, Chalfont Park, Bucks. 
The Black Bullace.—Some little time since I 
saw in the Gardening World an illustration of the 
Crittenden Damson. I herewith forward you some 
specimens of the Black Bullace, which seems to be very 
little known except in this locality, where it does remark¬ 
ably well, being every season alike productive. It is very 
hardy, and will hang on the tree till Christmas.— G. R. 
Simpson, Plough Corner, Colchester. [The fruits were 
larger than those of the Crittenden Damson, and quite 
as thickly placed on the shoots. —Ed.] 
Alnwick Seedling Grape. — In answer to 
“W. P. R.’s” enquiry at p. 126, as to the heaviest 
bunch of this Grape that has been grown, I may say 
that at the Derby September Show, 1884, and again the 
present year, I exhibited two bunches which weighed 
4 lbs. each.— John Campbell, the Gardens, Mickleover 
Manor, Derby. 
Duke of Buccleuch Grape.—Your corre¬ 
spondent “J.” says that I gave the Duke very faint 
praise, but speaking from past experience with it, I was 
unable to praise it any better. “J.”says the Duke 
has been unjustly condemned, very likely it has, but 
in my opinion “J.”is going a little too far in the 
opposite direction. The Duke appears to have got so 
far in “J.’s” favour that he has armed himself with 
weapons to defend it at all points; again, he says that 
“berries 5 in. in circumference have been measured by 
the writer, and when such is the case, I maintain that 
no other Grape can approach it for quality.” Now, by 
this remark, “J.” would lead us to believe that quality 
and size are synonymous terms, which I cannot admit. 
One may often taste large berries, not only of the 
Duke, but of other kinds such as Gros Colmar, for 
instance, which is very often deficient in quality ; of 
course, when quality and size are combined so much 
the better. I have tasted berries of the Duke not 4 in. 
in circumference quite as good as some which I have 
tasted that measured nearly 5 in., but I emphatically 
disagree with “J.’s” statement that not even Ham- 
burghs, Frontignans, and Muscats can approach it for 
quality when the Duke has been grown to its highest 
possible conditions. To my thinking it will be far 
behind the above named kinds in quality, and I doubt 
very much if the respected raiser and veteran Grape 
grower of the Tweed Vineyard whose name is a house¬ 
hold word among gardeners, would agree with “J.” on 
this point. “ J.” says he has cut the Duke as late as 
the 1st of January. I do not dispute this statement, 
indeed I am very pleased to hear it as I have never 
seen it, nor do 1 ever remember to have ever heard of it 
keeping so long. This is one more point iu its favour. 
Certainly “J.” misunderstood me when he remarked 
that I used the words luscious and watery as meaning 
the same thing. I said the Duke was refreshing and 
luscious, by that I meant it was refreshing and sweet, 
which it is. “ J.” denies that the Duke is watery, but 
I think if we had the opinion of the Grape growers 
generally, the greater part of them would be on my 
side.— JV. C. 
Aucuba japonica.— In “R. D.’s” note on this 
plant at p. 123, he says, “ It would appear that all the 
male forms are destitute of variegation.” In this I 
think he is mistaken, as, from the best of my recollec¬ 
tion, we had variegated forms of the male plant very 
soon after its introduction ; but I cannot say if these 
were “introduced,” or whether they were raised from 
seed in this country. The first male variety that I 
saw in flower was named A. japonica mascula maeulata; 
this had large leaves and was beautifully variegated. 
A. bicolor is another male variety with variegated 
leaves, and I believe there are several other variegated 
forms of the male Aucuba ; but as I have had little to 
do with this class of plants for several years, I am not 
so well acquainted with the newer varieties.— A. 
Hcmsley. 
Potato, Welford Park Kidney.— I obtained 
a few pounds of this Potato last spring, and have grown 
it with other varieties, including Lapstone Kidney, and 
during growth and now the crops are lifted I can find 
little, if any, difference between this and the last named 
kind. I have placed tubers of both together, and when 
mixed was unable to identify one from the other. — H. G. 
-- 
ORCHID ROTES AND GLEANINGS, 
Orchids* at West View, Mount Aden 
Park, Lordship Lane. —E. H. Adcock, Esq., 
when at his late residence at Penge, gave ample proof 
of his skill in growing those Orchids which he took in 
hand, and notably the Plialienopsids which were in 
superb condition. The change to the present site, 
which is one of the prettiest and most rural in the 
Dulwich district has been a happy one, the culture of the 
Orchids having improved in every possible way, until 
at present the rare selection at Mount Yiew forms a 
noteworthy model, which all who wish to grow speci¬ 
alities in Orchids, and grow them to perfection, would 
do well to imitate. Nothing in plant culture can be 
more satisfactory to the owner and his family, and to 
those who visit the gardens, than to see such a choice 
selection of Orchids as that which Mr. Adcock possesses, 
always in robust health and improving condition, 
and housed in neat comfortable houses, pleasant alike 
for the plants and for those who inspect them. 
Messrs. W. G. Smith & Co. of Bury St. Edmund’s, 
are the builders of the range (Beard’s patent), in three 
divisions, and so well have they done their work, and so 
remarkably have the plants thriven in it, that it speaks 
in the highest terms of the merits of their structures for 
Orchid houses, and from their great durability, and 
perfect ventilation, and from the fact that they admit 
light even down to the foundation, we may safely predict 
a very extensive use of them among amateurs in future. 
The whole of the framework is galvanised iron firmly 
set on the foundation, which rises only a few inches 
above the ground line. In shape the range is an angular- 
curved span, and it is glazed on Messrs. Smith’s own 
plan even down to the foundation ; that part of the 
house below the stages, which is mostly brickwork, being 
glazed with thick-ribbed Hartley’s patent glass, so that 
every inch of the houses have plenty of light conveyed 
in a mariner unlike any other houses. The ventilation 
too is perfect, by continuous ventilators, top and bottom, 
opening all at once and very easily. 
The first division is the cold houses, filled principally 
with Odontoglossum Alexandra, O. Pescatorei, O. 
Andersonianum, 0. Edwardii, Oncidium macranthum, 
&c., many of them sending up stout spikes. Nothing 
can excel in vigour and cleanliness the condition of the 
plants, some of them, such as the large 0. hebraicum, 
0. Wilckianum, and other hybrids which gained fame 
when in Sir Wm. Marriott’s collection, promising by their 
vigorous flower spikes to beat the previous performances 
recorded of them. 
The second division is of intermediate temperature, 
and among the fine batches of specialities in it are 
grand pieces of Oncidium Forbesii and 0. Marsliall- 
ianum, with stout and ever-increasing pseudobulbs ; a 
large batch of fine clean plants of Odontoglossum 
vexillarium and 0. Roezlii, both of which are grown to 
perfection at West View ; some superbly grown varieties 
of Leelia anceps and other Laelias, and a few of each of 
most really showy things of compact growth, suspended 
overhead being some scores of stout plants of the scarlet 
Sophronitis grandiflora, many of them being in flower. 
How to grow Cypripedium Spicerianum is disclosed at 
a glance in the third or warm division, where the whole 
of one side is filled with large specimens of it, perfect in 
the lively green of their foliage, and crowned with their 
quaint and beautiful flowers. It is no whim that 
prompted the giving of the high prices this plant used 
to fetch, and the love which the piantsman always had 
for it ; it is a beauty of no mean order, the neat form 
of its flowers and the unusual contrast of its snow-white 
dorsal sepal, with the yellowish and purple-tinted pouch 
and petals, and thebright violet central blotch rendering 
it very charming. Mr. Adcock's plants are in deep 
pans or half pots, and under each is placed a pan of 
water with a raft across it for the plant to rest on, and 
this arrangement seems to be just what Cypripedium 
Spicerianum likes, and C. niveum, C. concolor, and C. 
Godefroyie seem also to be greatly benefited by being so 
arranged. The pans for receiving the C. Spicerianum 
are crocked one-third of the way up, and the material 
used is three-parts turfy yellow loam broken up by 
hand, and the other part of leaf-mould, broken ballast, 
and crocks to keep the drainage open. Most of the 
plants at West View have six to twelve large flowers on 
each, and the twin-flowered form of the variety mag- 
nificum, of which we gave an illustration from Mr. 
Adcock’s plant in our issue for November 15th, 1884, 
has five twin-flowered spikes and four single, or fourteen 
flowers in all, the plant adhering to the peculiarity pre¬ 
viously noted in it of bearing two flowers on most of its 
spikes. 
Over the C. Spicerianums are suspended the 
Phalsenopsis, which are in the very best order, each 
new leaf being a great improvement on the one last made, 
both in size and texture, and that is a sure test that 
they like their quarters and their treatment. Oncidium 
Kramerii and 0. papilio majus, are both here in 
quantity, and unsurpassable in the quality of their 
growth and the vigour of their flower spikes, the 
strength of those of 0. Kramerii being marvellous. 
Mr. Adcock is very particular in shading his Orchids 
against bright sunshine, and more particularly those in 
the warm house, which has a double shading in summer 
on the sunny side, and this he considers a matter 
greatly contributing to the health of the Phalsenopsis 
and the other plants iii the same house. 
Mr. James O’Brien’s scale of temperatures, as given in 
The Gardening World, is regularly posted up in each 
house every month and found to answer admirably. A 
pretty lean-to conservatory against the house, with 
rockery and fountains, and Dendrobes suspended over¬ 
head, complete a compact little Orchid establishment 
which fully comes up to what is desired of it, and of 
which both Mr. and Mrs. Adcock are justly proud. 
Arundina Barabusaefolia.—This Orchid, I 
think, has been spoken of as the Sobralia of the east, 
and its blooms are not unlike a Sobralia or Delia. One 
of our leading Orchid growers did not recognise this 
Arundina, the other day, on account of its robust 
growth. Another visitor some time before, when he 
saw the plant, exclaimed with astonishment, “A brute ! 
I have tried it all ways and I cannot grow it!” The 
plant I am writing about gave me some trouble for some 
time after it was placed under my care. It refused to 
grow satisfactorily and was a prey to all insect pests. 
