May 21, 1887. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
597 
the dark green healthy foliage of Aerides, Sacco- 
labiums and Cypripediums. The old Dendrobium 
nobile and its varieties still hold their own as 
useful decorative plants. D. n. pulcherrima is a 
great favourite with Mr. John Cypher. The sepals and 
petals are almost white, slightly tipped with pale rose ; 
the throat is of a rich port wine colour, and the more 
one knows of this particular variety, the more will he 
appreciate it. D. aggregatum, D. Ainsworthii, D. albo- 
sanguineum, D. crassinode, D. Wardianum and D. 
rhodostoma are well-grown, and D. luteolum with pale 
yellow or straw-coloured flowers is much sought after 
for bouquets and button-holes. 
D. Dearei is well and largely grown in this house. 
Odontoglossum Roezli, Phalcenopsis Sehilleriana, P. 
Stuartiana, P. grandiflora, Angnecum citratum, A. 
Ellisi, Cypripcdium Lowianum, C. hirsutissimum, are 
all represented by healthy plants quite at home. C. 
bifolium and C. argus complete the list of Orchids in 
flower. Oncidium sarcodes is generally considered an 
intermediate house plant, but here it thrives best in a 
warmer temperature, producing larger bulbs, leaves 
and spikes in proportion. At the coolest end of this 
house was a fine healthy lot of Odontoglossum vexil- 
larium, which is found to do better here through the 
winter months than in a cooler house. One extra fine 
specimen had seven new very vigorous growths, forming 
an example good enough to remove any doubt there may 
be about the right temperature. Beneath the stages of 
this house, and just in front of the hot-water pipes, 
rockeries are made and planted with suitable creepers, 
Ferns and Grasses. This arrangement is pleasing to 
visitors, and counteracts the drying caused by the hot 
pipes. 
The Dendrobium houses have not much in flower, 
but there is a wonderful promise of bloom ; one novelty 
in bud is thought to be a cross between D. Wardianum 
and D. crassinode. I think by this time most of your 
readers are aware of the fame of Mr. John Cypher as a 
Dendrobium grower. I may just say lie still maintains 
it, as evidenced by these large bulbs of D. albo- 
sanguineum in 3£-in. and 2|-in. pans—the former 
with live new growths, the latter with one 1 ft. long 
and thick in proportion. What a stock of D. Ains- 
worthi ! I was shown some tiny pieces about J-in. 
long that had produced growths varying in size from 
3 ins. to 1 ft., and these are only a tithe of the in¬ 
stances of excellent culture that might be named. 
Mr. Cypher has just added to his stock the highly- 
coloured D. nobile nobilior, and I fully expect to hear 
of something sensational resulting from it. — Thomas 
Simcoe. 
-- 
TRACHELOSPERMUM (RHYN- 
CHOSPERMUM JASMINOIDES). 
Under whatever name this may be grown, the fact 
remains that it is one of the most useful, free-flowering, 
and sweet-scented plants coming under the care of the 
gardener. It seems to flower with equal profusion in a 
stove or greenhouse temperature ; but an intermediate 
house seems to be that most generally favourable to its 
well-being. In other words, a very high temperature 
is not necessary, but may be detrimental to its freedom 
of flowering ; while a greenhouse, from which frost is 
merely excluded, wmuld scarcely afford that stimulus 
necessary to induce a proper development of the flowers. 
A house kept sufficiently high for the maintenance of 
ordinary greenhouse plants in flower during winter will 
grow them to perfection. 
One of the many good points of this species of 
Trachelospermum is its tractability, and the facility 
with which it may be grown under different conditions, 
and trained to suit the taste or convenience of in¬ 
dividual growers. It will also flower with remarkable 
freedom, whether grown in a pot or planted out. It 
delights in a plentiful supply of water during the 
summer and growing periods, but must be kept on the 
dry side in winter during the cessation of growth. 
This will keep the roots in a healthy condition, and 
promote the development of flower-buds, which will 
expand freely after the resumption of growth. The 
accommodating character of this plant is further com¬ 
parable to that of the Periwinkle, another member of 
the same family. The Trachelospermum differs in the 
more decidedly shrubby and longer stems, and the 
larger and more coriaceous leaves. The trusses of 
white flowers are hardly necessary to describe, as they 
are familiar to a wide circle of gardeners. The obliquity 
of the segments is due to the manner of their folding 
in the bud. Their delicious and comparatively powerful 
odour is universally recognised and appreciated. 
In mentioning some of the uses to which this plant 
may be applied, the covering of unsightly or objection¬ 
able naked pillars in greenhouse or conservatory may be 
noticed ; above this it may still be allowed free scope 
to run up the rafters, where it may be confined to a few 
stems if desirable, so that plants beneath may not be 
unduly shaded. In a similar way the divisions of 
glasshouses may be covered by tying the shoots to wires 
or trellis-work. A large plant may be kept in a com¬ 
paratively small space by training it balloon fashion 
and growing it in a pot. This system is adopted by 
growers who exhibit the plant, and by this means it 
may be moved from house to house to retard or press 
it forward as the case may be, or even stood out of doors 
in summer in a cool place. Another purpose to which 
the shrub is put may be seen at Gunnersbury Park, 
Acton, where numerous specimens are planted along 
the margin of a raised bed in a Rose house, where the 
shoots droop over the sides gracefully, more or less 
concealing the hot-water pipes. They have been 
flowering freely for many weeks, but one notable fact 
is, that whenever they do not immediately overhang 
the hot-water pipes, growth is very strikingly retarded 
and comparatively little or no bloom is produced. The 
want of favourable influence of the heating apparatus, 
and the unlimited root-room, no doubt is responsible 
for this state of matters.— B. B. 
-->X<-- 
PHLOX SUBULATA NIVALIS. 
One of the showiest and most interesting plants 
that can be used at the present time for either the 
Piilox subulata nivalis. 
rockwork or herbaceous border, is Phlox subnlata and 
its numerous varieties, that produce a lively and varied 
glow of colour in gardens fortunate enough to possess 
them. The chief distinctions depend on the particular 
shade of colour, but several of them are also char¬ 
acterised by freer, more rambling stems, which are 
often regarded as forms , of a distinct species, namely, 
P. setacea, but the two are indistinguishable by 
technical characters. P. subulata nivalis, the subject 
of our illustration, is pure white without the circle of 
small violet blotches round the eye of P. s. Nelsoni. 
This latter, and several other forms, may be seen 
flowering at the present time in the gardens of the 
Royal Horticultural Society, Chiswick. Good drainage 
should be secured for this trailing-evergreen Phlox, if 
its cultivation be attempted in the herbaceous border ; 
but this difficulty is obviated by growing it on rock- 
work, where it trails over the ledges, clothing them 
with great beauty in the spring season. Propagation 
is easily effected by cutting off half-ripened young 
shoots inserted in sandy soil under a hand-glass or 
CURIOUS PLANTS. 
(Concluded from p. 582). 
A Giant Aroid. 
Fossil remains inform us of the existence of giants— 
both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms—in the 
bygone ages of the world’s history, but comparatively 
recent discoveries show us that giants still exist. For 
many years it was believed that the flower of Rafflesia 
was the largest in existence, but its rival has been 
discovered in western Sumatra, and imported to this 
country as recently as 1879. This is the Amorpho- 
phallus titanura, a member of the same family as the 
plant of our woods and hedges, and known as Lords 
and Ladies. The latter is dwarfed to a pigmy beside 
the giant, which has a tuber 5 ft. in circumference, a 
leaf-stalk 10 ft. in height, with a much-divided 
blade, covering an area 45 ft. in circumference. The 
flower-spathe is 3 ft. in diameter, with a spadix 
equalling the height of a tall man, and both are of a 
blackish purple colour. A living specimen may be 
seen every summer at Kew, and a life-size painting in 
one of the museums, where the huge leaf towers above 
two men carrying a tuber with its fully-expanded 
flower-spathe on a pole. 
Insect-nesting Plants. 
One of the most remarkable and interesting of these 
is Acacia sphoerocephala, a native of Mexico, with large, 
handsome, much and finely-divided leaves. It is some¬ 
times, in popular language, known as rhe Bull’s-horn 
Acacia, from the two large, formidable-looking, deep 
brown or black, hollow, spiny stipules at the base of 
the leaf. When young, the spines mentioned give no 
indication of being hollow ; but as the tree attains 
some size and age, the tips get broken or simply decay, 
so that the cavity is exposed. During certain seasons 
ants take possession of these hollow spines in the native 
country of the tree, and find an agreeable food in the 
shape of small, yellow, fleshy nodules of nutritive 
matter growing attached to the tips of young leaflets. 
In return for this apparently gratuitous supply of rich 
and agreeable food, the ants act as a body-guard to the 
tree, and whenever a browsing animal attempts to 
devour the leaves, these courageous little ants swarm 
out in great numbers, and so annoy the intruder as to 
cause it to beat an ignominious retreat. 
Other singular-habited plants, natives of the East 
Indies, become regularly, naturally, aud habitually 
perforated, tunnelled, or galleried in all directions, so 
that ants find suitable accommodation, and take up 
their abode there. Both plants and animals seem 
perfectly adapted to each other’s welfare, and live, as it 
were, in social fellowship. The plants themselves seem 
a tuberous fleshy mass, epiphytical on the stems of 
trees and other subjects, and become, in time, very 
singular objects. A number of these plants are 
members of the Coffee family, and are very unlike those 
of that family generally. Other plants of similar 
habit, however, belong to different natural orders, and 
inhabit various of the Erst Indian Islands. Myrrne- 
codia Beccari, belonging to the first family mentioned, 
has been imported, successfully grown, and fruited in 
this country. Seedlings have been raised, and these, 
in their earliest stages, exhibit some exceedingly 
curious and grotesque outlines. 
Flesh Eaters. 
We are so accustomed to seeing animals eat plants or 
other animals, that the fact is liable to be overlooked 
of plants sometimes preying upon others or on animals. 
As far as our present knowledge goes, this faculty is 
possessed only by a few, and our curiosity is the more 
excited on account of this peculiar and exceptional 
character. Venus’ Fly Trap (Dioncea muscipula) affords 
one of the most singular instances of this class of plants, 
where the margins of the leaves are produced into long 
finger-like tentacles, and the two halves are so con¬ 
structed that they close instantly when one of the six 
bristles is touched by an object. The tentacles interlock 
like the teeth of a rat-trap, and the inventor of that 
machine might be excused if he borrowed the idea from 
this plant. The object of the long tentacles is to allow the 
small fry to escip;, and from the behaviour of the leaf, 
we conclude that it lays itself out for one hearty meal. 
It will close over a small fly, but allows it to escape 
and soon opens again ; but if a large fly or other small 
animal becomes venturesome, it is made a close prisoner. 
The leaf now remains closed for many days, and 
develops an acid secretion by which the animal is 
digested, as it would be in an ordinary stomach. The 
leaf ultimately opens again with an impaired digestion, 
and may devour a second meal, but gets killed with 
more. One experimenter gave the leaf indigestion by 
feeding it with an overdose of cheese. 
Some of our native plants are endowed with the same 
faculty of digesting animal matter, but are less striking 
to the casual observer than the Fly-trap, because their 
movements are slower. The Sundew (Drosera rotundi- 
folia) is an instance, and whereas the leaf of the former 
is dry before being acted upon by animal matter, the 
