July 7, 1888. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
717 
and in the forks of the branches of Isora to dislodge 
bug. In cases where the plants have been neglected 
till they are in a bad way, it may be necessary to resort 
to the use of a weak solution of paraffin to dislodge the 
enemy, and loosen the dirt from the leaves. Be, 
however, very careful with young and tender foliage, 
stirring the mixture constantly while being used, and 
syringe thoroughly with clean water shortly afterwards. 
Such stringent measures will not have to he resorted to, 
however, by careful cultivators. 
THE GREENHOUSE. 
Tree Carnations. —Layers produce the strongest 
plants in a given time ; but in the case of large ones, 
this method becomes impracticable, thereby rendering 
propagation by cuttings imperative. In selecting the 
pipings, the strongest are always the best, provided 
other things are equal, and the plants from which they 
are taken be healthy. Use a sharp knife with which to 
make the cuttings, and prepare the latter carefully, as 
bruises and ragged cuts act inj uriously to the healing of 
the wounds. Favourite kinds are Souvenir de la Mal- 
maison, in its pink and rose varieties ; Miss Joliffe, 
Pride of Penshurst, and Gloire de Nancy also being 
good and popular kinds. Use light sandy soil, or 
rather that to which a considerable quantity of clean 
silver-sand has been added. Insert the cuttings firmly 
around the sides of well-drained pots, and place in a 
brisk bottom heat. 
Ericas and Hard-wooded Plants.— All Heaths 
making their growth should be plunged or half plunged 
in the open air, and if the position is somewhat shaded 
from strong sun during the middle of the day, so much 
the better. Watch the first attacks of mildew, and 
dust the plants at once, otherwise their leaves will soon 
drop. When Pimelias, Dracophyllums, Aphelexis, 
Darwinias, Diosmas, and similar New Holland subjects 
have finished flowering, prune them back in order to 
render the specimens shapely and bushy. Small or 
young plants that have overgrown their pot room 
should receive a shift just as the buds of the fresh 
growth are seen to push. Use good fibrous peat, with 
plenty of clean silver-sand. 
THE FRUIT HOUSES. 
The Vineries. —With the heavy rains which have 
been prevalent recently there will be little need for 
extra and artificial watering if the soil is naturally 
very moist; but in well-drained borders, and where 
they are much elevated above the level of the sur¬ 
rounding soil, watering must not he neglected in the 
case of Vines now rapidly swelling their fruit. Surface 
dressings of nitrate of soda applied just before rain or 
before watering the borders will be found to act quickly 
and very effectively. Of course, this may be varied by 
applying liquid manure. A good mulching of stable 
manure will prevent the soil of the borders from 
quickly drying up, and will add a considerable amount 
of nutriment. 
Peaches and Nectarines. —Succession houses need 
similar treatment to those which ripened their fruit 
earlier in the season. Keep the fruit well exposed to 
light by pushing them clear above the foliage as much 
as possible, and keeping them in that position by the 
aid of laths, labels or other thin pieces of wood. 
Allow the house to run up to 80° with sun-heat, and 
syringe heavily early in the morning and late in the 
afternoon till the fruit begins to ripen, when it should 
be discontinued. This will keep down red-spider, 
which is very liable to attack the foliage when the 
atmosphere is allowed to become dry. Late houses 
may be retarded by throwing the ventilators wide 
open, which has the effect of causing a rapid circulation 
of air, so that even on bright and warm days the 
atmosphere of these houses is much cooler than the 
external air. 
THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 
Celery. —The main plantation of Celery should be 
completed at once, if not already done, and the heavy 
rains will be found of immense advantage to newly 
planted stuff, compared with the dry arid atmosphere 
which prevailed at this season last year. The earliest 
planted lots will derive advantage by being slightly 
earthed up. Previous to this, however, the smaller 
and useless leaves, as well as suckers, may he removed, 
and after having loosened down the soil, hold the 
leaves closely together with one hand so as to prevent 
the soil getting into the crown of the plant, and with 
the other put the soil round the leaf-stalks. Give 
plenty of water during dry weather, and feed occa¬ 
sionally with liquid manure. 
Late Tomatos. —By a simple contrivance or method 
of management a good crop of Tomatos may be had 
late in the season with a comparatively small amount 
of trouble. Good strong plants if potted on now may 
be stood out of doors, where they will come along 
gradually, and by being in pots will be prevented from 
making gross and rampant growth during the wet 
weather, with which we are generally visited in autumn. 
When there is any danger of frosty nights the Tomatos 
may he removed to an early vinery or Peach house, 
from which the leaves have fallen, or to any cool house 
with plenty of light. By this means a late crop may 
be secured after the fruits have been destroyed by 
frost in the open air or have ceased to ripen. 
-- 
ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
♦ _ 
"♦ ■ 
The Orchid Growers’ Calendar. 
Catasethms, Cycnoches, and Mormodes. —These 
quaint and interesting plants are rapidly getting into 
favour, the introduction of the beautiful white 
Catasetum Bungerothii and other new subjects having 
done much to call the attention of cultivators to them. 
In many places these plants are considered difficult to 
grow, and many good growers imagine that after a time 
they must inevitably die. Such is not the case, how¬ 
ever, for if properly managed, no section of Orchids is 
to be grown with less trouble, or is surer to produce a 
good supply of flowers. 
It may, however, be said of Catasetums, Mormodes, 
&c., that unless they are properly grown, few plants 
are more superlatively miserable in appearance than 
they are. On several occasions I have found a few of 
these plants in collections mixed up with general in¬ 
termediate house plants, and usually in a very had 
state, and as often have I been told that they were 
kept in the same house at all seasons, and treated like 
the other of its occupants. In several instances I have 
been instrumental in bringing about a radical change 
for the better by simply recommending that Catasetums, 
Cychnoches, &c., be treated in much the same manner 
as Dendrobium Wardianum and other deciduous Den- 
drobes—viz., by giving them a fair growth with plenty 
of water now and throughout the summer, until their 
leaves turn yellow, when it should be gradually 
withheld. When the tissues of the pseudo-bulbs are 
well hardened up, they should he, each in their turn as 
they are ready, removed to a shelf in a cool airy house 
of 50° to 60°, where they should be kept dry until they 
start into growth again, which in the various species 
will be at different times. 
While growing, the Catasetums do not like too much 
direct sunlight, or the leaves are apt to become spotted 
and marked with thrips, but when maturing and resting 
plenty of clear light should be admitted to them. 
These plants are worthy of all consideration, as few 
Orchids command so much attention as they do when 
in flower. As I have said before, nothing will better 
help to a correct notion of their requirements than to 
say that they thrive well when treated in precisely the 
same manner as deciduous Dendrobes, and so treated 
they may be grown in baskets or pots. Catasetum 
longifolium, however, does best on blocks. With the 
above-mentioned plants should be grown Ansellias, 
Cyrtopodiums, Eulophia scripta, Bletias, &c. 
The Temperatures for July should be East 
Indian or warm house, 75° to 80° by day, 70° at night; 
Cattleya or intermediate house, 70° to 75° by day, 
65° at night ; Odontoglossum or cool house, 60° to 70° 
by day, 55° at night.— James O'Brien. 
Cypripediums. 
In the eleventh number of the Bindenia s a very com¬ 
plete and useful list of species, varieties and hybrids of 
the great genus Cypripedium is published, 430 being 
enumerated, and yet some few distinct things, such as 
Cypripedium bellatulum roseum, certificated lately at 
the Royal Horticultural Society, and some of the hardy 
deciduous varieties, are not included. The list is the 
most complete we have seen, and although a few things 
are under more than one name, that is not the fault of 
Mr. Otto Ballif, who compiled it, but of those who 
named the plants. For an example, who can detect 
any specific difference between Cypripedium Petri and 
C. Dayanum, which is itself a variable species in leaf 
and flower 1 — J. O'B. 
Masdevallia ESTRAD/E. 
The aspect or general appearance of this species may 
be described as pretty; but owing to its small size it 
ranks only in the second or third grade. Growers, 
however, who pride themselves on having a collection 
of this genus would value it above many that are 
several times the size. It grows to the height of 4 ins. 
or 5 ins. only, and produces flowers quite freely. These 
are carried singly on ascending footstalks, rendering it 
very suitable for cultivation in baskets, as when so 
treated and hung up near the glass the flowers are seen 
to the best advantage. The upper sepal is rose-coloured, 
while the lower lip is white and heavily suffused with 
purplish mauve at the base. The tails of these organs 
are orange-yellow and 1| ins. to 2 ins. in length. We 
saw it the other day at Gunnersbury Park, Acton. 
Dendrobium moschatum. 
The stems of this strong-growing species annually 
attain a height of 4 ft. to 5 ft. at Gunnersbury Park, 
Acton, where although the flowers last in perfection 
for two or three days only, a succession has been kept 
up for some time past, by a number of plants trained 
against the end of one of the stoves. The flowers are 
borne in pendulous racemes from near the apex of the 
stem, and have creamy yellow sepals and petals, suf- 
used with rose, with two black blotches in the interior 
of the pouched or slipper-like hairy lip. It is 
synonymous with D. cupreum, and is sometimes grown 
under the name of D. Calceolaria, a different species 
altogether. _ t ^ _ 
NEW BOOKS. 
Choice British Ferns, their Varieties and 
Culture. *—To ordinary observers it would seem that a 
sufficient number of works has already appeared on the 
subject of British Ferns ; but those who were familiar 
with them, and their numerous garden varieties as they 
existed twenty years ago, will find upon inquiry now 
that a vast amount of change has taken place since 
then, and that a process of evolution is still going on, 
making garden Ferns assume such strange and un¬ 
wonted forms in the hands of the skilled horticulturists, 
not to say hybridist (for notwithstanding what science 
says on the point, hybridisation amongst Ferns, 
although shown to he possible, has not yet been 
reduced to an operation of certainty), as the early 
cultivators could never have dreamt of. 
The work under notice, which is by far the 
best on the subject that has lately been published, 
consists of 167 pages of letterpress, more than half 
of which is occupied with various cultural details, 
while the peculiar culture necessary for any given 
species appears under the description. The latter 
is always written in a popular manner, so that 
the book is wholly designed for amateurs. It is 
nevertheless of such a character, especially with regard 
to the illustrations, that the expert could not fail to 
derive instruction in the identifying of many of the 
more distinct, and particularly the highly evolved garden 
forms. The number of varieties is enormous, as there 
exists, in a collection near London, some 3,000 or 
4,000, so that in a popular work like the present it 
would he impossible in the small compass to describe 
or figure a tithe of them; yet there are beautifully 
defined illustrations of some 120 select forms, which 
are necessarily greatly reduced, and depicted by 
white lines on a black ground. In the older works on 
Ferns, few, if any, garden forms are represented, except 
in expensive works beyond the reach of the ordinary 
cultivator or amateur. The figures mentioned indicate 
in a graphic way the wonderful and great amount of 
evolution that has taken place in such common British 
types as Athyrium Filix-fcemina, Lastrea dilatata, 
L. Filix - mas, Polypodium vulgare, Scolopendrium 
vulgare, Polystiehum angulare, Blechnum spicant, and 
others, the ordinary or tj^pical forms of which are or 
should he familiar to every British gardener. To 
obtain such variations the author has shown that we 
must first find spontaneous or natural variations 
of any given species, and by sowing the spores of these 
we obtain in the course of a few generations perhaps 
no end of new, beautiful or curious forms. The 
pleasures of Fern hunting are described, and their 
culture and propagation discussed in such a way as to 
show that the author knows what he is about and has 
practised it himself. Cultivation in pots, pans, on 
rockwork, in Ferneries, Wardian cases, and the excite¬ 
ment and pleasurable expectations derived from spore¬ 
raising are gone into with a sufficient amount of detail 
to make it enjoyable and instructive reading, while the 
means of fighting Fern enemies are not overlooked. 
The second part of the book is devoted to descrip¬ 
tions of the various British Ferns, and their choicest 
varieties. No botanical classification is adopted, but 
the genera and species are mostly arranged alpha- 
* Choice British Ferns, their Varieties and Culture. By 
Charles T. Druery, F.L.S. London : L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand, 
W.C., 1888. 
