582 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
May 14, 1887. 
trusses may be improved in size and variety of colours, 
the}'- are not a whit more suitable for bedding purposes 
than they were thirty or forty years ago. 
The carpet-bedding system has been the cause of dis¬ 
placing many of our old favourites that used to be 
extensively cultivated. "We have seen grand stands of 
"Verbenas, of late years, exhibited at many of our 
metropolitan and suburban shows, that have been 
grown under glass ; and it is astonishing how grandly 
the flowers are developed when skilfully grown in light 
airy glass houses. Of these later introductions, very 
many are far more suitable to be thus treated than for 
bedding purposes ; and should any one for one moment 
suppose that they can grow them in the open beds, as 
they are frequently shown, their expectations are very 
likely to end in disappointment. 
There are very few now who grow any but the best 
kinds for seeding purposes ; consequently, seed from 
any source may be generally relied upon as yielding a 
fair percentage of really good varieties. And to raise 
and grow Verbenas from seed being now so easy and 
simple a matter, everyone can, if disposed, grow them 
both for pots and borders ; and should any of the seed¬ 
lings prove distinct and worth preserving, they can 
be propagated. Seed can also be saved from any of the 
plants, if desired, and is preferable for mixed beds, &c., 
than attempting to keep plants through the winter 
months ; and by saving your own seed you can rely on 
the germinating powers of the seed and on the selection 
of sorts with regard to'colour and habit.— George Fry, 
Lewisham. 
-->X<-- 
MR. B. S. WILLIAMS’ ORCHID 
EXHIBITION. 
The commodious structure which Mr. B. S. "Williams 
now annually devotes to a lengthened exhibition of 
Orchids in the Victoria and Paradise Nurseries, Tipper 
Holloway, never was more gay than it is at present, 
or so replete with good examples of the leading 
favourites. The house is a capital one for such a 
display, the long handsome bank of gorgeous flowers 
being rendered all the more effective by contrast with 
the noble bank of specimen fine-foliaged plants opposite, 
and among which are, conspicuous for their abundant 
and brightly-coloured foliage, some grand specimens of 
Dracaena Lindeni. 
The Cattleya is the leading genus among the Orchids, 
and among the many good things here brought to¬ 
gether are some grand varieties of Mossise, both as 
regards size and beauty of colour ; some lovely forms 
of Mendelii, fine varieties of Lawrenciana, splendid 
examples of the rosy violet Skinneri, a good Intermedia 
with six spikes ; and numerous Ltelia purpurata, &c. 
The lateness of the season is borne witness to by the 
presence of numerous examples of Dendrobium Ward- 
ianum and D. Devonianum, with which may be seen 
the free-blooming D. Jamesianum, a pretty bit of D. 
Falconeri, and fine masses of the yellow suavissimum; 
yellow Oncidiums are abundant and very bright in 
appearance. Among the forms of 0. sarcodes is one with 
more dense racemes of flowers than we have ever noted 
before, and very distinct by comparison with the large 
spikes of ordinary varieties. Large spikes of 0. 
Marshallianum also claim attention by reason of their 
exceeding brightness. Besides Odontoglossum crispum 
in good varieties, this popular genus is well represented 
by such showy sorts as 0. Pescatorei, 0. sceptrum, 0. 
luteo-purpureum, and an 0. Andersonianum, very 
finely spotted, and the ground-colour nearly white. 
The white Calanthe veratrifolia makes a good appear¬ 
ance, and in company with it is the pretty rose- 
coloured C. Sanderiana, one of the last of the genus 
to come into bloom. 
Cypripediums are well represented, and among in¬ 
dividual examples of merit may be named a finely- 
flowered example of Oncidium lamelligerum—a species 
closely allied to 0. macranthum, and having showy, 
brown, yellow-bordered blossoms; a very attractive 
piece of the beautiful lemon-yellow, faintly spotted 
Epidendrum Wallisii ; Lycaste Harrisonife, a grand 
mass, with about thirty flowers ; the rare Miltonia 
spectabilis Tolliana, conspicuous for its richly marked 
labellum; Masdevallia Veitchiana, with blooms 
measuring 7 ins. across ; Vandas tricolor insignis, 
Patersoni, and the true Dalkeith variety ; the rich rosy 
purple Bletia Shepperdii ; and the deep red 
Broughtonia sanguinea. In the growing houses are 
scores of well-cultivated examples of all kinds of 
summer-flowering Orchids, so that the display is not 
likely to lose any of its lustre for some time to come ; 
and all Orchid lovers who can should certainly pay 
Mr. "Williams a visit. 
-- 
CURIOUS PLANTS. 
(Continued from p. 570). 
Acanthosicyos horrida. 
From the same arid regions as mentioned in the last 
case comes another extraordinary plant belonging to 
the Cucumber family. We are accustomed to see 
plants of this class furnished with broad, thin, more or 
less divided leaves, but those of the Narras plant, as it 
is called by the negroes, are reduced to small spiny 
tipped processes scarcely one line long, protected by a 
spine on each side. The numerous stems are pale 
green, about the thickness of a pencil, and form dense 
impenetrable thickets from 2 ft. to the height of a 
man. The Narras plant can live without rain, but 
requires an abundant supply of moisture at the roots, • 
which penetrate through the sands to obtain it for a 
distance of 200 ft. to 300 ft. or more ! It grows vigor¬ 
ously, thriving at the foot of the sand downs, or 
covering the latter, serves to bind the shifting sands 
together, and occasionally gets buried, but its own 
rampant vigour generally overcomes the evil with little 
difficulty, and the stems push through the banks or 
heaps of sand, which now bristle like the back of a 
porcupine. Immense quantities of fruit are produced 
of an orange colour, and beset with small spiny pro¬ 
jections. These singular fruits vary from the size of 
an orange to that of an ostrich’s egg, and contain a 
great quantity of white or orange-coloured gratefully 
acid and refreshing pulp with numerous seeds. The 
lower animals devour them in great quantities, and the 
Hottentots get fat on them. The seeds are also relished 
either raw or boiled. If eaten in great quantity, 
however, by English travellers, the pulp proves in¬ 
digestible, and causes sickness. An orange-coloured 
juice exudes from the base of the branches, and serves 
to bind the mobile sands together ; and human life 
would be insupportable in that dry arid region where 
it seldom or never rains, were it not for the existence 
of the Narras plant. 
Butcher’s Broom (Ruscus aculeatus). 
The Butcher’s Broom grows wild in several places in 
the south of England, and to the casual observer might 
appear commonplace, and undeserving of comment. 
It is unique, however, iu several respects amongst 
British plants. Besides being the only shrubby 
species amongst the Lily family and its allies, the true 
leaves are so minute and inconspicuous that most 
observers would fail to notice them. What appear to 
be dark green, vertical, spiny-tipped leaves, are in 
reality flattened branches. This is proved by the 
presence of small brown leaves at their bases, and 
clusters of small insignificant flowers, followed by 
scarlet berry-like fruits that spring from the middle of 
these leaf-like structures. Neither flowers nor fruit are 
produced from true leaves, hence we must regard these 
structures as flattened branches performing the 
functions of leaves. A similar condition is observable 
in Asparagus, where the myriads of small needle-like 
bodies are of the nature of branches, not leaves as 
might easily be supposed. The cook who is only 
acquainted with Asparagus in the condition fit to be 
used as a vegetable, would fail to recognise the plant 
in its adult condition. 
Welwitschia mirabilis, 
Another cone-bearing tree, but somewhat distantly 
related to the Wellingtonia, is no less an interesting 
object. It is named Welwitschia mirabilis, after Dr. 
Welwitsch, who discovered it for the first time as 
recently as 1860 on the elevated table lands near Cape 
Negro, in West Tropical Africa. The trunk is woody, 
obconical, mostly embedded in the soil, and lives to 
the age of a hundred years, but can hardly be described 
as a tree. In old plants it attains a length of 2 ft., is 
two-lobed on the top, and somewhat depressed or 
flattened like a table, with a circumference of 14 ft. 
The Portuguese about Cape Negro assert that trunks 
exist 6 ft. in diameter, bearing leaves 2 to 3 fathoms 
long. Two leaves only are produced by the plant 
beside the seed-leaves, and with that exception the 
whole plant presents a rough, dry, and semi-lifeless 
appearance. They are usually about 6 ft. long, and 
grow at the base only, while the upper ends are brown, 
and keep dying back. Owing to the parallel nature of 
the venation, the leaves readily become torn up into 
shreds or whip-like thongs, that lie rolling about on 
the bare, stony, parched soil. Rain rarely falls in the 
arid region in which this singular and unique plant 
exists, and these facts are explanatory of its extra¬ 
ordinary habits. Good-sized fruiting specimens and 
smaller ones are exhibited in a case on the basement- 
floor of Museum No. 1 at Kew. 
Cacti, 
The Cacti constitute a natural family consisting of 
about 1,000 species, some of which are amongst the 
most curious forms of vegetation, and, with very few 
exceptions, are perfectly or functionally leafless in the 
adult state. They are not parasitic, however, but 
have the functions of leaves performed by the fleshy 
green stems themselves, which assume the most 
fantastic and grotesque shapes. They are with one 
exception, perhaps, confined to the New World in the 
wild state, inhabiting the arid and sandv or rocky 
places of Mexico, California, Chili, Peru, and Brazil. 
They constitute a weird and uninviting kind of vege¬ 
tation, affording neither shade nor shelter to man or 
beast where the mobile sands, ever and anon in a state 
of movement, seem ready to engulph or bury every 
living thing ; yet they are perfectly at home, and seem 
to enjoy the burning sun aud the half-baked earth. 
Some of the species of Opuntia—such as 0. vulgaris 
and 0. Tuna—produce the fruits known as Indian Figs, 
or Prickly Pears, and which may often be bought at 
Co vent Garden Market. The huge jointed and flattened 
stems and branches of many species project in all direc¬ 
tions from a large plant, looking like so many gym¬ 
nasts at play. Opuntia Tuna is well armed with spines, 
and on that account used as hedges in Mexico. The 
huge, naked, almost unbranched stems of Cereus 
giganteus attain a height of 50 ft. to 60 ft. in the 
desert regions of New Mexico, and on mountain slopes, 
where they appear like telegraph-posts for signalling 
from peak to peak. There are several night-flowering 
species, with giant flowers 12 ins. to 14 ins. in diameter 
when fully expanded. Their grand and striking beauty 
and delicious fragrance is only equalled in interest by 
their short-lived duration. They open in the evening 
or at night, and fade early next morning. Some of 
them, when ready to expand, burst into full flower in 
the course of twenty minutes. Cereus senilis is popu¬ 
larly known as the Old Man Cactus, from the dense 
covering of hoary or white hair-like prickles that clothe 
the upper part. Many of the Cacti are perfectly naked, 
while others are clothed with hair-like bristles, as in 
the Old Man, or with a dense array of spines, as in the 
species of Echinocactus. In both these latter cases 
they afford the plants protection from the burning rays 
of the sun, and from being devoured by animals. 
Wild horses and other -quadrupeds do, indeed, kick 
them to pieces, in order to suck the juices when likely 
to perish from thirst. 
The Turk’s Cap—Melocactus communis—is a gro¬ 
tesque-looking plant with a globular outline, about 
ft. iu height and 1 ft. in diameter, surmounted by a 
short cylindrical portion termed the cap, and furnished 
throughout with strong spiny ridges. This upper 
portion is of a reddish brown colour—at least, when 
young—and hence the application of the specific name." 
There are about forty species of this genus, all pre¬ 
senting much general similarity.— F. 
-—>X-<-- 
GARDEN PLANTS ILLUSTRATED. 
Phajus Humblotii. 
From the interior of Madagascar we have several 
remarkable or showy Orchids, and that under notice 
is considered the most important discovery since 
Aerantlius sesquipedalis was found in the island. The 
sepals and petals in the expanded flowers are lilac ; 
but the remarkable labellum is parti-coloured. The 
lateral lobes are brownish purple and generally re¬ 
ticulated, while the anterior lobe is deep or intense 
purple, shaded with lilac in the centre, and having a 
bilamellate yellow disk towards the base. It grows at 
the base of large trees in its native home, where it is 
continually moist, and, therefore, requires a moderate 
amount of shade in our country with abundance of 
moisture.— Ecichcnbacliia, t. 17. 
Zygopetalum intermedium. 
The species with which this frequently cultivated 
Orchid is liable to be confounded is Z. Mackayi. The 
