October 2, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
77 
south, all the Strawberries in pots ; as, although 
requiring abundance of water, delugings at this season 
are best avoided. 
THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 
The fine weather lately has permitted us to very 
nearly complete the hoeing and weeding of all the 
squares, so that we shall be tidy for the rest of the 
season. We are waiting for rain, to enable us to plant 
out Cabbages and Strawberries for a new plantation ; 
these we do not expect, or allow, to fruit, but we look 
to them simply to furnish us with runners for layering 
for next season’s forcing. A good sowing of French 
Beans, in pots, should now be made, to succeed those 
sown in the heated pit. Mustard and Cress, too, must 
now be sown inside, as no reliance can be placed on 
the out-door supply. 
Those who sowed Brown Cos Lettuce, as advised, 
will, like us, be in possession of plenty of good salad- 
ing for some time to come ; the only thing necessary 
will be to see that frequent tyings are made, instead of 
all at once. Globe Artichokes should now be cut over, 
and all the old stems removed ; should there be any 
blanks in the quarter, as the young suckers appear, 
take them off the -old stool and plant at once. As soon 
as large enough to handle, let a good breadth of 
Lettuce be pricked out to stand the winter ; if the foot 
of one of the south walls can be spared, they will stand 
without further protection. Attend to the gathering 
in of fruits. Pears ready with us, are Beurre d’Amanlis, 
Beurre Superfin, Louise Bonne of Jersey, and Gratioli. 
— Walter Child, Croome Court. 
-- 
ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
Shading on Orchid Houses.— The shading 
should now be removed from the north or shady side of 
the intermediate house and others containing Cattleyas, 
Lfelias, &c., and also from over all resting Dendrobes, 
and from now until the time comes for taking off all 
blinds, great care must be taken to only have them 
down when necessary to protect the plants from injury 
by the sun. Keeping them over-shaded in the autumn 
is a fruitful cause of spot and decay in all Brazilian and 
Mexican plants, such as Barkerias, dwarf Lselias, &c., 
as when so treated they seem to make sappy growth, 
and not of the requisite hardness desirable to tide them 
over the long sunless periods we get during our winter. 
Free ventilation when the sun only comes out in gleams 
renders it possible to keep the shading off without fear 
of injury. 
All the houses should still have just | in. of air left 
on at night in the bottom ventilators ; indeed, in 
houses that admit of it, it is a great aid to Orchid cul¬ 
ture, even in the dead of winter ; certainly the cool 
Odontoglossom house should never have all the bottom 
ventilators entirely closed, unless there is a fear of not 
keeping up the necessary temperature. Just a suspicion 
of air at the bottom makes a great difference in the 
quality of the air in the house, and does not much 
interfere with the heat; it is also a great safeguard 
against a too high night temperature, which never fails 
to work destruction among all classes of Orchids. 
The Pleiones will now be losing their leaves and 
sending up their flowers, and, consequently, will re¬ 
quire but little water ; the different varieties of 
deciduous Calanthe, such as C. Veitchii, will also be 
now finishing up then - growth, and as their leaves turn 
yellow, less water should be given them, but they 
should still be kept in a good light place to send up 
their flowers. 
The Temperatures for October should be :— 
Warm or East Indian house, 70° to 75° by day, 65° 
at night; Cattleya or intermediate house, 65° to 70° 
by day, 60° at night ; Cool or Odontoglossum house, 
60° to 65° by day, 55° at night.— James O'Brien. 
Orchids in Flower at Kew. —A good number 
of Orchids were in flower, I noticed, when on a recent 
visit, among them being a plant of the new Aerides 
Sanderiana, and near it, suspended on a raft, a small 
plant of Dendrobium Phalrenopsis was also in bloom, 
the spike bearing four fine flowers. Several plants of 
Saccolabium Blumei were also flowering ; one nice plant 
with several leads bore eight flower spikes, seven of 
which were fully expanded. Masdevallia Shuttleworthii 
in a 4-in. basket was carrying eight flowers, and 
Phalsenopsis Lowii, a gem among the moth Orchids, 
had no less than forty-two flowers, quite half of which 
open with their delicate rose tint, presenting a very 
pretty sight. It is not often one sees this plant doing 
well ; here it was suspended within a few inches of the 
glass on a block, which was covered with living 
sphagnum, and seemed quite at home. The sweetly- 
scented P. violacea was also in flower close by, as well 
as the tiny P. Esmeralda. Among the Zygopetalums 
in flower was a plant of Z. Gauteri with seventeen 
flowers. Some Odontoglossums were also in bloom, 
such as 0. Rossi, O. Alexandras, 0. constrictum, &c. 
Oncidiums were represented by 0. tigrina, 0. ornitho- 
rhynchum, 0. papilio, and several others. Among the 
Cypripediums were the pretty C. concolor and C. 
Godfroyse ; many others were also flowering. Some of 
the Yandas, too, are in bloom, as well as Phajus, 
Spathoglottis, Lveastes, and Ccelogynes. Altogether, 
I thought for the time of year the houses were looking 
particularly bright.— J. S. B. 
Mr. Cypher’s Orchids. —Some very fine things 
are now in bloom at the Queen’s Road Nursery, Chel¬ 
tenham. Several of that grandest of Aerides, A. Law- 
reneia, are in bloom, one with twenty-seven very large 
and finely-coloured flowers. A. Rohaneanum is also 
flowering profusely, and is very delicate and fragrant. 
There is also a grand lot of extra varieties of Den¬ 
drobium bigibbum, which is a speciality here, in flower ; 
D. Goldieanum, with fourteen flowers on a spike.; and 
a good lot of the pure -white D. Dearei. Among other 
good things are Cypripedium Spicerianum, with seven 
spikes open, four having two blooms ; Oncidium Lan- 
ceanum, with twenty-eight flowers ; 0. ornithorynchum, 
with about 2,000 ; 0. prsetextum, with over 450 ; some 
good Cattleya speciosissima, and C. Eldorado. On¬ 
cidium microchilum, too, is in flower ; it has brown 
and yellow sepals and petals, and a curiously shortened 
lip, white and violet. 
-->Z<--- 
FLORICULTURE. 
Pinks and Pink Culture. —Calling at the Royal 
Nursery, Slough, a few days ago, I saw that the Pink 
pipings struck during the summer were all planted out 
in nursery beds ready for sale, and a better lot of 
plants I do not think I ever before saw. As Pinks are 
a little impatient of overmuch moisture at the roots 
during late autumn and winter, the beds were raised 
4 ins. or so above the ground level, so that they should 
have as much natural drainage as possible. It is said 
that the Pink is not so much grown as it used to be. I am 
not sure if this is correct, but there are a great number 
of plants at Slough, and I suppose this may be taken 
as some indication that they will be required in the 
season by those desirous of purchasing. 
I think the Pink is a thorough amateurs’ flower, 
because at no period of its cultivation is the protection 
of glass required, unless it be for the purpose of rooting 
the pipings. I may state that John Ball, the Pink 
grower at the Royal Nursery, instead of putting his 
pipings in squares on the top of a dung-bed, and cover¬ 
ing them with a liandlight, now puts them in pots 
and plunges the pots in a slight hot-bed in a frame. 
That this answers, is shown by the size and vigour of 
the plants I saw in the nursery beds. 
The Pink is planted out in the flowering beds in 
October, aDd on until November. It is a good plan 
to make up the bed in September ; Pinks like a 
rich compost, and a suitable one is made of two parts 
of sound, well-sweetened turfy loam, and one part of 
rotten cow-dung. In selecting a spot for the Pink bed, 
it should not be one where the water is likely to lie ; 
and w’hen it is made, it should be 9 ins. above the level, 
so as to allow for sinking. The planting is best done 
in the early part of October ; the plants should be a 
foot apart when they are strong, and a little closer 
rvhen they are small. The plants should be pressed 
firmly into the soil, and any having long shoots liable 
to injury from being blown about by the wind should 
be pegged down to the soil. Planting done, the prin¬ 
cipal work will be keeping the beds free from weeds, 
watering when required, and stirring the surface occa¬ 
sionally when it is hard. If hard frost operates to 
thrust the plants up out of the soil, they should be 
firmly pressed into it again when a thaw sets in, and 
the soil has dried enough to enable this to be done. By 
the end of March the beds should be trimmed and made 
up so as to look as neat as possible, and at this time a 
top-dressing of 1 in. or so of well-decomposed manure 
will be found of great advantage. 
A selection of good, useful, laced Pinks will be found 
in the following list:—Bertram (Turner), Berard 
(Turner), Clara (Maclean), Emerald (Hooper), Ensign 
(Fellowes), Ernest (Maclean), George White (Paul), 
Godfrey (Turner), John Ball (Maclean), Mr. Hobbs 
(Looker), Prince Frederick William (Hooper), Reliance 
(Hooper), and Shirley Hibberd (Turner). I have in¬ 
cluded only the exhibition Pinks, as they are termed, 
and they represent the best of the South of England 
flowers now cultivated.— B. D. 
-- 
THE ROSEWOOD. 
Brazilian Rosewood, which is the Rosewood par 
excellence, has been used in Europe for furniture pur¬ 
poses for at least 200 years, and if the dates on some 
articles of this material, shown at South Kensington, 
be correct, for nearly 300 years. Tables and cabinets 
were made of it long before mahogany was brought 
across the Atlantic. According to a Brazilian official 
publication, Rosewood trees are abundant in all the 
provinces on the east side of the empire, from Pernam¬ 
buco to Rio de Janeiro. The exports of this wood 
from Brazil have increased tenfold within the last 
fifty or sixty years, and now amount in value to about 
£100,000 per annum. Notwithstanding its importance, 
and the length of time it has been used in Europe, the 
species of tree which yields it is not yet known. In 
Brazil it is called Jacaranda-wood ; but in that country 
there are several Jacarandas : the black, the purple, 
the violet, the white, and the thorny Jacarandas, 
the species of which are known, besides the Rose 
Jacaranda, of which apparently only the genus 
is known. At all events, the botanical source 
of Brazilian Rosewood is not known in Europe. 
According to the catalogue of the Kew Museum, 
it is supposed to be obtained from one or more 
species of Dalbergia. In East India there are three 
dark heavy woods belonging to this genus, well- 
known for their useful properties, which some¬ 
what resemble, though they have not the beauty of 
Brazilian Rosewood. These are the Dalbergia latifolia, 
the D. sissoo, and the D. cultrata. Indeed, the D. 
latifolia has been long well known in England as East 
India Rosewood. Rosewood being known to be dis¬ 
tinctly resinous—a property which is well seen by 
lighting a splinter of it—a number of experiments 
were made to determine the amount and character 
of the resins and resinous colouring matters which 
Brazilian and Honduras Rosewood, as well as two 
species (Dalbergia latifolia and D. sissoo) of the Indian 
woods referred to, contained. The results of these 
experiments, which consisted in treating the sawdust 
of the different samples with naptha, ether, and alcohol, 
showed that the character of the resinous matters 
extracted from these woods is nearly the same in all, 
and that there is no great difference in their quality. 
For example, the naptha extract was, in most cases, 
about 1^ per cent, of the 'wood, the ether extract 
averaged nearly 4, and the spirit extract roundly 14 
per cent. The total extract was rather higher in the 
Brazilian than in the East Indian woods. The naptha 
extract has the characters of ordinary Pine resin—viz., 
ready solubility in spirit, and the high characteristic 
odour when heated. Both the ether and the alcohol 
extracts are very dark-coloured, and the latter especially 
has a very strong tinctorial power, one part in 100,000 
of alcohol showing a distinct colour in a test tube.— 
From the Transactions of the Edinburgh Botanical 
Society. 
■ - -—>*«- - 
FREAKS OF TASTE. 
It is interesting to watch the fluctuations in tastes 
and diversity of opinions as they go and come in con¬ 
nection with flowers. So changeable are we, that at 
one time we are found admiring a plant, and soon after 
passing it as unworthy of note. 
I have just been reading an article on the single 
Dahlia, in -which the author says the Dahlia was 
accommodating in the hands of ambitious florists. It 
doubled and doubled until it became as full, formal, 
stiff, and gigantic as possible. But later on a change 
occui red in popular taste. Double flowers palled, and 
the more simple forms of them were sought out. 
Fashion, very sensible for once, declared in favour of 
the single Daisies, Asters and Dogwood, and he might 
