August 28, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
821 
rim of the pot in ashes in a cold frame, and kept close 
till danger from severe frost arises, hy which time they 
should be nicely callused. At this period they will 
benefit by being stood in a little heat to cause them to 
draw root. They can be potted off any time before 
March, and grown along with the ordinary collection. 
These usually make fair stocks for grafting the next 
autumn ; the preference, therefore, must be given to 
cuttings, for by these you gain a season. I may say, that 
I have succeeded in striking stocks at all times through 
the winter months up till March in a gentle heat and 
kept close ; but this late system should only be prac¬ 
tised where the stocks are actually needed, for they 
occupy valuable space in the spring months that is 
required for other purposes. 
The first requisite in a stock, fit for grafting, is that 
the root action should be in good order and the pots 
full of healthy roots. This particular item must be 
kept in mind, for everything else depends upon it. 
Should the roots go wrong the whole job will be an 
utter failure. 
The grafting of the better varieties may be proceeded 
with any time from the end of July till the early part 
of September; if not done at this time I should not advise 
an amateur to try until the end of February or early in 
March. Grafting in the autumn gives the scion and 
stock sufficient time to unite before winter sets in, and 
if they are carefully tended during the winter, the 
plants are then ready to start away into an early growth 
when opportunity offers. Grafting in the spring has 
no particular advantages, only that you have not the 
trouble to look after the young plants through the 
winter; but I do not think the spring-grafted plants 
make such strong growth the first season as the autumn- 
worked ones. 
The modes of grafting are few, and the best system 
is side grafting or cleft grafting. Where the latter 
style is adopted care must be taken that the top of 
the stock is cut off just above a bud and leaf, or the 
stock will in all probability die. After securely tying 
on the scion, the plants should be put into a propa¬ 
gating case, kept quite close, the temperature not ex¬ 
ceeding 55° to 60° ; in fact, the temperature wants to 
be kept as even as possible. The lights must be taken 
off occasionally to dry, and the plants be looked over to 
see that no damp is settling about the union ; if so 
wipe it off, and do not place the lights on again until 
all damp is dried up, but be careful the sun does not 
get to them. 
In a month’s time a fair idea may be obtained as to 
which are going to take and which fail ; but the work 
requires at least six weeks before they can he said to 
be safe, and it is better to give another week or two 
than to be in too great a hurry to get them out of the 
case, and thus lose the lot. It may easily be seen 
if the two are uniting, for the callus will begin to swell 
out between the ties, and when this is noticed the 
matting may be slackened. 
After the plants have been in the case a month, it is 
as well to let the lights remain off all night, and to put 
them on again during the day—always shading from 
sunlight until the time they are fit to be removed from 
the case to a cooler house. In the spring, when the 
scion shows signs of growth, the whole head of the stock 
above the scion may be cut away, and the plant treated 
to the ordinary routine of Camellia growing. 
The mode of propagating by inarching is a very 
simple process, and means the act of laying two branches 
together, and cutting the bark away from each so as 
they may equally fit each other, then tying tightly 
together, and afterwards plaster with grafting clay or 
wax. This style of propagating is practised on large 
and leggy plants that require better sorts working on to 
them. 
Success in grafting these and all other kinds of plants 
depends a great deal on care at the time of doing the 
work, also on a healthy stock, with good root action, 
and a healthy scion, attention to keeping damp from 
settling upon the union, and a close but not too hot a 
temperature. If the above remarks are followed out, 
any amateur may succeed with a part, at least, of the 
grafts put on. — W. Q. 
LiELIA BATEMANNIANA. 
SOPHRONITIS GRANDIFLORA X CaTTLETA INTERMEDIA. 
It is with the most sincere pleasure that we avail 
ourselves of the opportunity to give an illustration of 
Messrs. J. Veitch & Son’s latest, if not greatest, triumph 
in Orchid hybridisation, the result of the apparently 
hopelessly wide parentage of Sophronitis and Cattleya. 
The outcome of Mr. Seden’s care and patience in this 
direction turns out to be a gem of the first water—a 
neat and pretty plant in growth and in flower. The 
name authoritatively given, coupled with the names of 
the parents, may seem startling to some, but as history 
repeats itself, so obsolete botanical names and affinities 
always lie at the call of the botanist, and offer ready 
loopholes for even such difficulties as the now numerous 
and ever increasing race of hybrids presents. 
However, it may be laid down as a rule, that when¬ 
ever botanical features of species are laid down, it is 
proper to bring the hybrids under them without regard 
to the names of their parents ; and that course has 
been followed in this trying instance by our esteemed 
Orcliidie authority, Professor Keichenbach. 
The plant of Lielia Batemanniana from which our 
illustration (natural size) was taken, measures not 
more than 2 ins. or 3 ins. in height, but bore a charm¬ 
ing flower 2 ins. in diameter—flat, prettily formed, and 
of fine substance. The form of the sepals and petals 
are much the same as in Sophronitis grandiflora, but 
bright rose-pink in colour ; the lip very nearly ap¬ 
proaches that of Cattleya intermedia, but is more open 
and neatly formed ; the outside of the tube is rose, the 
inside sulphur-yellow, the dark portion in front violet- 
crimson, the whole margined with pure white. Since 
the first specimen flowered another has opened slightly 
different, but equally lovely ; and in their private 
stock Messrs. Veitch have other strange crosses with 
Sophronitis grandiflora, which will probably prove 
more startling even than the one under notice. 
- —>$<- - 
EARWIGS AND CHRYSAN¬ 
THEMUMS. 
From the views which have recently found their way 
into these columns, it is evident there is a variety of 
opinion existing among growers of the Chrysanthemum, 
as to whether the Earwig does really feed on the foliage 
of this flower. Mr. Boyce, who should be somewhat of 
an authority on the subject, does certainly declare, 
without the least hesitation, that it is the case, though, 
if I remember rightly, he does not positively assert that 
he has ever seen one eat anything, but that it feeds in 
the night, and takes refuge in the leaves, in order to be 
in readiness for the succeeding night, belonging to that 
class, of whom the inspired penman speaks, when he 
states, “they love darkness rather than light, because 
their deeds are evil.” At any rate there seems to be a 
goodly number of Chrysanthemum growers who think 
with Mr. Boyce, that such is the case. I formerly 
belonged to the number, and kept up a deadly warfare 
against the Earwig, giving no quarter whenever I met 
with it. Still, 1 found the extremities of the shoots eaten 
as badly as ever, which caused me to alter my mind, 
and to look out for a different class of game from what I 
had previously hunted. 
I made precisely the same mistake with regard to the 
blooms of the single Dahlia. I found them frequently 
eaten in one or other of the petals as soon as they began 
to expand, and among the foliage of the plant which 
bore the blooms there was usually one or more Earwigs, 
which led me to suppose that they were the mutilators 
of my flowers, and I slew them right and left; still my 
blooms were as badly eaten as ever. At last I began to 
examine each bud just previous to the petals expanding, 
and, fortunately, one morning I discovered a minute 
caterpillar snugly ensconced within the flower taking an 
early breakfast, previous to beating a hasty retreat from 
his felonious repast, for it is the habit of this fraternity 
to get as far away from the scene of mischief as possible, 
suspecting, no doubt, that there will be a row when the 
master comes, and so leaving the poor Earwig to pay 
the penalty with his life. 
The said caterpillar is so diminutive in size that you 
might carelessly look over a plant twenty times and 
not notice it unless you made up your mind as to what 
you were searching for. It is of a pinky white, about 
a i in. long, and scarcely thicker than a piece of sewing 
cotton. Of course, the hole which it eats in the flower 
is very small at first, but as the petal expands the hole 
Delia Batemanniana (Nat. size). 
