156 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
November 5, 1887. 
Curled Proliferous Kale. —The general ap¬ 
pearance of this sort is that of ordinary leaves gone 
mad with a craze to develop smaller leaves or part of 
them, and to produce all kinds of fantastic shapes on 
the upper surface, but more particularly along the 
mid-rib, where the largest proliferous out-growths take 
place. These larger pieces develop other pieces, 
exhibiting all kinds of fancy and frilled work, together 
with little processes resembling flower-buds. The 
terminal position of the blade is covered all over with 
these latter processes, together with a numerous inter¬ 
mixture of cup-sliaped and other developments re¬ 
sembling miniature Japanese sunshades, with a handle 
and projecting piece or point externally. The leading 
colour is glaucous green with red mid-ribs. We should 
think from its appearance that it would form a tender 
and palatable article of food, and is, certainly, a great 
curiosity. A quantity of it is grown in the trial- 
grounds of Messrs. J. Yeitch & Sons, at Chiswick. 
- ~>X<~ - 
ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
Orchid Growers’ Calendar.— This month is 
the best time to re-pot Disa grandiflora, the plants 
being turned out, the old soil removed without breaking 
the tender rhizomes, the stronger pieces selected to place, 
several together, in pans for the best flowering specimens, 
and the smaller ones in like manner for successions. 
The best compost is good fibry peat broken up by the 
hand into lumps, a little fibrous-Joam, sphagnum moss, 
and a sprinkling of good charcoal ; but if grown in a 
suitable place, and otherwise well attended to, it is not 
particular as to scil, as it grows very well in peat and 
sphagnum with a little sun. After re-potting, the 
plants should be placed in a cool (about 50° to 55°) 
house on a shelf near the glass if possible, and kept 
fairly moist, as their rhizomes grow all the winter 
under the soil. The other Disas should also be so 
treated. 
The resting Dendrobes will now, many of them, be 
losing their leaves, which should be allowed to fall off, 
and not be cut off when they turn yellow. A little 
water should be given if signs of shrivelling appear. 
The winter-flowering Calanthes will now be sending up 
their spikes, and as soon as the first flower on each 
expands, they should be removed to a temperate, 
rather airy, and not moist house, so that they may 
be kept in flower as long as possible. A little weak 
liquid-manure helps the spikes up wonderfully. We 
still get some very bright sunshine at times, and where 
the blinds have been removed from the houses, care 
must be taken to ventilate well in order to prevent 
injury. At such bright periods, a sheet or two of 
paper should be spread over anything very tender inside 
the house whilst the sun is on it. 
Moisture should be distributed in the houses on the 
staging and floors, according to the weather outside, so 
as to preserve a temperature which will assist in keeping 
the plants plump. Steaming by syringing the pipes 
and plants should be avoided, as both practices are very 
injurious. 
The Temperatures for the Month of November 
should be :—East Indian or warm house, 70° to 75° by 
day, 65° at night; Cattleya or intermediate house, 
65° to 70° by day, 60 at night; Odontoglossum or cool 
house, 60° to 65 1 by day, 55° at night. — James 
O'Brien. 
Oncidium bicallosum.— The general appear¬ 
ance of this species forcibly reminds one of O. Caven- 
dishianum, and after examination of it, no surprise is 
created by the fact that both are natives of Guatemala. 
Both agree in the absence of pseudo-bulbs, and in the 
fleshy, rigid, upright leaves. The flowers of O. Caven- 
dishianum are wholly yellow, and the scapes sometimes 
attain considerable height ; whereas that under con¬ 
sideration is a dwarf species, the flowers of which have 
a yellow labellum only, and the sepals and petals are 
more or less heavily suffused with brown. The colour, 
however, is neither so deep or so dull as to mar the 
general effect of the flowers. For autumn and winter 
flowering it is invaluable, and by no means so plentiful 
as it might be in collections. From the upright nature 
of the foliage, and the otherwise compact habit of the 
plant, it requires but little space for its accommodation, 
and is both handsome and distinct. It has been 
flowering for some time in that rapidly-increasing 
collection at Studley House, Hammersmith, where Mr. 
Cowley succeeds in blooming so many new or rare 
Orchids. 
Twin-flowered Cypripedium Lawrenci- 
anum.—A well-grown specimen of this Orchid is a 
handsome object even under the ordinary conditions 
and form of the plant, but a twin-flowered spike is of 
rare occurrence, and we must confess to not having 
seen one on any previous occasion. The honour of 
this unusual production is due to Scottish horticultural 
skill, and shows that even within the smoky radius 
of Glasgow something of excellence can be grown. 
Mr. Russell, of the Redlands, Kelvinside, sends us the 
specimen, bearing two magnificent blooms in no way 
inferior to well-grown examples with the usual solitary 
flower. The lower bloom on the scape is quite normal 
as to form, while the standard of the upper one is 
incurved at the sides, so as to make it heart-shaped, 
and rests on the edge of the basal part of the petals, 
pushing them downward, as in a distinct and named 
variety of this species in which this particular con¬ 
formation is constant. The lower flower would appear 
to be that normally produced when the scape bears 
only one, and in this case is the larger of the two. 
The labellum is particularly large, dark purple, very 
rounded and blunt at the base of the pouch, whereas 
that of the upper is somewhat smaller, paler, and 
distinctly more narrowed towards the base of the 
pouch. It will be thus seen that the flowers are truly 
dimorphic, and if they had occurred on separate plants 
would rightly be considered as two distinct varieties. 
The petals of the upper flower are slightly shorter, and 
distinctly more declinate, owing to the interference of 
the curiously involute standard. The dark purple 
veins on the white ground of the latter organ is par¬ 
ticularly rich and striking. The large handsome 
flowers, and the beautiful marbling or mosaic work of 
deep green on a whitish green ground of the foliage of 
this species, will always make it a popular and highly 
desirable kind for even a select collection. 
A. Lilliput Orchid. — Such is the designation 
that must be given a tiny species of Eria, namely, 
E. muscicola, from Ceylon. It has been flowering for 
some time at Kew, and has not attained its full size, 
although large enough to flower. A stem bearing two 
flowers is under an inch in length, and the leaves 
are even shorter. The pseudo-bulbs at present are 
like tiny little peas, considerably flattened, and 
measuring from 1J to millimetres in diameter. 
The flowers, as might be expected, are very diminutive, 
being considerably under J in. in length, and straw- 
coloured. It is grown in a house kept at a high 
temperature, and the pseudo-bulbs are scattered over 
a piece of cork, in the crevices or excavations of which 
they are nearly hidden. No one possessed of the 
fashionable rage for growing large flowers only would 
care to take it in hand ; but to the botanist it is 
highly interesting, as well as to those who delight 
in representative collections of any particular genus, 
such as the present one and the Masdevallias, than 
any of the latter of which it is perceptibly smaller in 
all its parts. 
The Curious Growth of Calanthe 
Veitchii. —The cases mentioned in your columns do 
not appear to be uncommon this season. We have 
several similar occurrences here. In one the base of 
the flower spike is enlarged to more than an inch in 
diameter, and has the appearance of a bulb, so much 
so that I believe it will produce a growth next year. 
Five of its bracts (in this case may they not be 
correctly termed leaves?) being of considerable size, 
I enclose one for inspection. We have used larger pots 
and stronger liquid manure this summer than 
previously, and until I read Mr. Blandford’s note I 
attributed the cause to these changes in their culture. 
Another curiosity deserving of mention is that two of 
the bulbs produced a flower spike at their points, but, 
unfortunately, these were pinched out before they 
developed. All our bulbs—both forms of Yestita, as 
well as Veitchii —are very large ; one of the latter 
being 15 ins., while others are 1 ft. in length. — Thomas 
Coomber, Hcndre Gardens. 
Dendrobium aureum. — The season of this 
deliciously-scented Orchid has again come round to 
delight us, not so much by the bright colours of the 
flowers as by their numbers and the exquisite fragrance 
which they diffuse through the whole house in which 
they are growing. Some blooms sent us by Mr. John 
T. Poe, Riverston, Nenagh, Ireland, are notable on 
account of the size of the whole flower, but particularly 
of the labellum, the middle lobe of which is ovate, 
blunt, and greatly elongated, besides being also very 
highly coloured. The species, although well known in 
gardens, more frequently passes under the name of 
D. heterocarpum amongst gardeners, with whom it is 
very popular. 
CHRYSANTHEMUM NOTES. 
The Morden Park Collection. 
Everywhere at present great preparations are being 
made for the Chrysanthemum tournament about to 
commence. Peaceable as are the designs of the 
contest, there is a considerable straining of nerves to 
bring up material in the best possible condition for the 
fray. This exactly represents the state of matters at 
Morden Park, Morden, Surrey, where every plant— 
every bloom is watched with the greatest care, and 
strict attention is paid to every outburst of sunshine 
lest the expanding and delicately-coloured blooms 
should be injured. The vineries have to do service, 
whether the Grapes are cut or not, in the way of 
shelter, and to forward the blooms ; and we must 
confess, the results give Mr. Gibson great credit. The 
various sections are well represented, but greatest stress 
is laid upon the Japanese, incurved, reflexed, Anemone, 
hybrid Anemone, and Pompon varieties, in the order 
named. 
The plants bearing the most forward blooms consist 
for the greater part of Japanese sorts, and these are 
mostly located in one house with a sprinkling of other 
kinds amongst them. Conspicuous for the great size 
of their heads, at the time of our visit, were Comte de 
Germiny, Album plenum, Fair Maid of Guernsey, 
Criterion, Triomphe de la Rue des Chalets, Margot, 
Madame de Sevin, Ralph Brocklebank, a gold sport from 
Meg Merrilies, Jeanne Delaux, Belle Paule and Japonais. 
None, perhaps, exceeded the immense and beautiful 
deep mauve heads of Madame Clemence Audiguier. 
The orange and yellow shaded, long, slender cut paper¬ 
like heads of Bertier Rendatler strongly resemble those 
of Mandarin, except in colour. Notable also for its 
great size was the new Amy Furze, with regularly 
drooping pink florets, shaded rose, the regularity of 
which makes it difficult to define to what section it 
should belong, whether Japanese or reflexed. Phoebus 
is also new, characterised by broad, recurved or 
drooping bright yellow florets. For decorative purposes 
at least, Album fimbriatum, a pure white fringed 
variety, is very ornamental. The globular heads of 
"William Holmes, with crimson and golden yellow 
tipped florets, and the rosy mauve of Ferdinand Feral, 
contrast strongly with the singular looking, golden 
yellow, and fantastically twisted florets of Golden 
Dragon, Grandiflorum and Thunberg. Carew Under¬ 
wood is a crimson sport from Baronne de Prailly. 
The leading varieties of the incurved section figure 
largely, and a list of these can never be given without 
including Empress of India, Golden Empress of India, 
Queen of England and its golden sport, Lord Alcester, 
Alfred Salter, Barbara, Prince Alfred, Jeanne d’Arc, 
Novelty and Princess Beatrice. The latter two are 
notable for the depth and compactness of their great 
flower heads. George Glenny and the various forms of 
that type are both useful and ornamental, and, though 
small compared with many of the more recent kinds, 
nevertheless, find favour with most cultivators. 
Popular and well-known kinds are generally represented 
by sports or seedlings differing only in colour, and 
accordingly we have the Bronze Jardin des Plantes and 
Bronze Queen. The cinnamon-red and shining heads 
of John Salter and the bronzy red of Lord Wolseley 
contrast well with the silvery rose Lady Hardinge and 
the densely packed buff-yellow heads of Mabel Ward. 
Some good but late kinds in this section are only yet 
in bud ; and of these Princess Teck, Hero of Stoke 
Newington and Mrs. Norman Davis maybe mentioned. 
The large lilac-pink heads of Lady Slade are beautiful. 
Reflexed varieties will probably never become so 
popular as the two leading Jiinds just mentioned ; but 
such fine things as King of Crimsons, Cullingfordi, 
Chevalier Domage, Dr. Sharpe (magenta-crimson) and 
Phidias should obtain a place in a collection. The 
heads of Cullingfordi are deep scarlet, and are furnished 
on the back of the petals with curious bristly appen¬ 
dages, by which the variety may be readily distinguished. 
Although small, the rosy violet heads of Violet Unique 
are very pleasing. There are four different coloured 
varieties of Christine, and three at least of these are 
represented at Morden Park, namely, Christine White, 
Christine Pink and Christine Peach. Cloth of Gold is 
a singular production, which develops at first pale 
yellow tubular drooping florets, but after a time much 
broader and flat-limbed ones that serve to give body 
to the flower. 
Some striking things are furnished among the large- 
flowering Anemone kinds, and here they are grown to 
advantage. Fleur de Marie and Lady Margaret are 
two large white seifs of great purity, well matched by 
the rosy lilac acquisition, the bright violet La 
