May 30, 1891. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
625 
States I am informed, and the fruit fetches nearly, but 
not quite, as good a price as the Orange. Pears are a 
very profitable crop, I am told by many growers ; some 
say it pays better than the Orange. The variety known 
as Le Conte is what is almost universally grown. Peach 
culture is not general at present, but it is coming into 
favour. The variety which has proved the best for 
this climate is the Chinese Peach, Pean-To. I have 
heard of the crop off a single five-year-old tree 
having realised 8120, but growers do not expect to get 
such prices again as they got when the Peach was of 
rare growth in the State. Pean-To Peach trees give a 
good crop the second season after planting. I saw a 
couple of days ago some three-year-old trees covered 
with young fruit, and there could not have been less 
than 500 or 600 fruit on one tree I looked at. Pine¬ 
apples, when carefully grown, attain immense size and 
good flavour. This fruit is only grown in the south of 
Florida, and ripens in summer and autumn. 
In the same district where the Pineapple is grown 
are extensive Cocoanut orchards, and here also the 
Guava flourishes. These delicate tropical fruits are 
only grown for profit in the southern part of the State. 
At Fort Worth one could easily imagine he was in the 
tropics, with the Cocoanut trees towering high in the 
air beneath them, and the Pineapple, the Guava, the 
Persimmon tree, the Date Palm, and the other tropical 
plants thriving as well as in their native homes. 
Market Gardening. 
Market gardening in Florida has a great field before it. 
Here the farmer can grow almost every variety of vege¬ 
table in the open air, and produce ripe crops months 
ahead of the gardener in the North. Potatos are ready 
for digging in March and April ; Tomatos ripe at the 
same time. Cabbage, Turnips, Asparagus, young 
Onions, Lettuce, &c., ripen and are ready for market 
here, grown in the open air, at a time when the land 
in the Northern States is, perhaps, held in the iron 
grip of frost. Delivered at this season in the markets 
of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other cities, 
fresh-grown vegetables fetch fancy prices. Green Peas, 
now being gathered, fetch in New York market a dollar 
a quart. Of course this high price will not last very 
long. The bulk of the Florida crop of Peas will be 
ready in a fortnight or three weeks, and prices will 
gradually fall with increased supplies. The grower who 
raises in the open air Strawberries and Asparagus, 
really for the rich man’s table at Christmas, gets his 
own price; but everyone cannot do this, even in 
Florida. Against the high prices realised must be put 
the high charges for quick transportation by rail, 
salesmen’s commission, &c. ; but with all that, the 
thrifty market gardener, working with care and 
judgment, can make not only a competence, but a 
fortune. Many of the farmers here have their own 
railway lines, or sidings, right into their ground, where 
they load crates of Cabbages, Broccoli, Celery, Cucumber, 
Beets, Melons, &c., which are promptly sent on their 
journey of 1,500 or 2,000 miles northward. The sweet 
Potato is extensively grown here, and produces crops of 
300 to 480 bushels per acre, the market price of which 
is from thirty-five to sixty cents per bushel. This crop 
does not require much care, and is often planted between 
the drills of Maize or Indian Corn, and when both those 
crops are taken off the land, the cow or field Pea is 
planted, thus taking two or three crops in the year off 
the land. The last harvest crop is very important to 
the Florida farmer, it being a great renovator of land 
in which organic matter has become exhausted. The 
cattle are turned in on this crop, and eat it on the 
ground ; what is left decays and enriches the soil. 
—Land and Water. 
- - -»£*> - 
ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
--i-- 
The Orchid-Growers’ Calendar. 
Possibly at no other period of the year does such a 
varied and attractive show of flowers grace the Orchid 
houses as at the present time, when Lielia purpurata 
and Cattleyas Mendelii and Mossise in their many 
forms are in full force in the Cattleya section, and 
Cypripediums almost innumerable, pretty, quaint or 
curious, are invariably interesting,whether the beholder 
he a grower or not. The cool house also comes in for a 
full share of admiration when plants of Odontoglossum 
crispum are well in flower as they are wont to be in 
May, and the bright colours of the Masdevallias and 
Epidendrum vitellinum majus greatly help in at¬ 
tractiveness. 
Although but little re-potting wants doing amongst 
cool-house plants at this season, there are a few plants 
which may be done now with advantage, such as the 
noble O. Edwardii, O. ramosissimum, and O. blandum, 
none of which produce large individual flowers, but all 
are very pretty and well worth a good place. Plants 
of O. crispum, newly imported, which have been 
recently purchased, and which are breaking freely, 
should now be potted up and kept moist, when they 
will quickly form new roots and grow away vigorously, 
a little warmer place than the cool house being all the 
better to give them a good start. 
The earliest plants of Cattleya Sanderiana, C. gigas, 
and C. chrysotoxa are now showing sheaths, and may 
he treated to more liberal supplies of soft rain-water 
henceforth, till the growing and flowering period is over. 
It is no easy matter to keep the houses right when the 
outside temperature varies so greatly during twenty- 
four hours as has frequently been the case of late, but 
the grower’s intelligence must be brought to bear on 
this as on othor things connected with his work, 
and success will crown his efforts.— W. P. 
Ccelogyne pandurata. 
A large piece of this bold and striking species may be 
seen in the warm Orchid house at Kew. It is grown 
upon a raft, which allows the creeping rhizomes more 
scope than if confined to a pot or basket. One scape 
carries ten flowers and another six. The lively and 
pleasing green hue of the sepals and petals serves to 
show off the remarkable association of colours on the 
lip. The ground colour of the latter organ is of the 
same hue, but there are numerous, more or less confluent 
ridges upon it of a velvety black, with numerous small 
green elevated points here and there over the surface. 
The sides are reflexed in such a way as to give the 
lip the shape of a violin, as expressed in the specific 
name, which means fiddle-shaped. The flowering period 
is usually spring and early summer. The species was 
originally introduced in 1853 from Borneo. 
A Floriferous Cattleya. 
A piece of Cattleya Mossise is now flowering finely in 
the gardens at Devonhurst, Chiswick. The specimen 
is by no means a large one, as may be understood from 
the fact that it is grown in a 2j-in. pot, yet it bears 
thirty-three flowers of good average size. The sepals 
and petals are of the usual light rosy hue, and the 
lip, although not unusually dark, is well formed, large, 
and handsome. The middle lobe is beautifully marked, 
and the margin is finely undulated and crisped. The 
leads are pretty numerous for the size of the plant, 
which has evidently been grown to the present vigorous 
state from a small piece. 
Odontoglossum Wallisi. 
Originally discovered in Venezuela by thetraveller and 
botanist, G. Wallis, this Odontoglot was sent to the 
establishment of L’Horticulture Internationale, at 
Brussels, in 1868, and was named by Professor 
Reichenbach in honour of the collector. Two years 
after publishing his first description, Reichenbach 
again described it under the name of O. purum. A 
fresh introduction of it was made in 1890, by the same 
firm, and on flowering it was named O. bellulum. 
When it flowered the second time its identity with O. 
Wallisi was re-established. There is a good coloured 
illustration of it in L'Illustration Horticole , pi. 127. 
The yellow sepals and petals are variously marked 
with brown, while the white lip has a purple blotch on 
the upper half. The disc is pubescent, and this taken 
with the narrow grassy leaves is sufficient to recognise 
this species. 
ClRRHOPETALUM COLLETTII. 
There are evidently as curious objects amongst the 
species of Cirrhopetalum as amongst those of Bulbo- 
phyllum. In the case under notice the upper sepal 
and the petals constitute the curiosity, while the lip 
presents nothing so extraordinary as we find in Bulbo- 
phyllum barbatum and some others. The upper sepal 
of the plant under notice is yellowish, with deep brown 
nerves, edged and terminated by a fringe of purplish 
red segments, which are also more or less fringed. 
The lateral sepals are 4 ins. to 5 ins. long, drawn out 
to a long point, and united by their contiguous edges, 
as is customary in the genus; their colour is brownish 
red, except towards the base, where they are yellow 
between the broad, red veins. The short petals are 
yellow, fringed at the sides with yellow hairs, and 
terminated by a curious crest of cuneate, toothed, red- 
coloured segments. The lip is three-lobed and erect, 
with the middle lobe recurved and channelled along 
the middle. Being of medium size and reddish, it is 
not particularly conspicuous. The species is a native 
of Burmah, and presumably named after General 
Collett. It has been flowering for some time past in 
the warm division of the Orchid house at Kew. 
Cypripedium montanum. 
Like our British Slipper Wort (C. Calceolus), that 
under notice is deciduous and hardy, and must be 
pretty closely allied, but comes from the far distant 
mountains of Oregon, from whence it was brought to 
this country as recently as 1883. The leafy stems rise 
to a height of 1 ft., hearing a number of lanceolate, 
plicate leaves. The sepals and petals are brownish 
purple, but the lip is white, striped or spotted in¬ 
ternally with a clearer or brighter purple. The 
staminode, also a feature of the flower, is yellow, spotted 
with crimson. The distinctions, although not great 
botanically speaking, yet from a horticultural stand¬ 
point the white lip is important enough, and serves to 
distinguish the plant from C. Calceolus and C. parvi- 
florum. Like so many other rare and beautiful plants, 
it finds a refuge in the Hale Farm Nurseries, 
Tottenham. 
Cattleya gigas Sanderiana. 
This promises to be an unusually floriferous year for 
this very fine Cattleya, for out of a batch of fifty plants 
we can already count thirty sheaths, with more to 
follow, judging from the grand breaks. The first 
spike to show has five flowers. All our plants are 
grown in baskets, and suspended close to the glass in 
a light, airy structure. Very little material is required 
for them to root into, and on no account should the 
rhizome be covered by the compost. They require a 
good season of rest. Very little if any water should be 
given during the dull winter months, and not until the 
growth is well advanced or the sheath is in sight 
should they have anything like a liberal supply.— 
Sidney Cooke, Posejield, Sevenoaks. 
-- 
The Rev. A. Rawson. —The death of this amateur 
horticulturist occurred at his residence, Fallbarrow, 
Bowness, Windermere, on the 18th inst., at the age of 
seventy-two years. For thirty-nine years he was vicar 
of Holy Trinity, Bromley Common, and when he 
relinquished his preferment a few years ago he went to 
Bowness, where he spent the remainder of his days. 
He was an ardent and active florist, and had a great 
love for his garden, and especially for hardy flowers, 
which he grew somewhat largely. 
While at Bromley he was a great admirer of the 
large-flowered Pelargonium, and raised several varieties 
which were named and distributed. Maid of Kent, a 
pretty light decorative variety, with fringed petals, is 
yet to be found among collections. Mr. Rawson also 
raised Creole, a very dark purple ; Darkie, another 
dark flower, but small in size ; and Striata, a striped 
variety which was somewhat inconstant, the lower 
petals rose, dark blotch on the upper petals, all being 
more or less striped or flaked with crimson. This was 
distributed from Slough by Mr. C. Turner. The 
Carnation was another favourite flower with Mr. 
Rawson. He raised Lemon Drop, a yellow self of a 
promising character ; Fallbarrow, yellow also ; Master¬ 
piece, a crimson self, very good ; and Mary, a good 
white. He also raised a fine free-flowering single 
white Sweet Violet, which was distributed under the 
name of Rawson’s White. 
Of late years Mr. Rawson took a great interest in the 
coloured Primroses and Polyanthuses, and every spring 
I used to get a box of flowers from him. By his death 
I miss a valued correspondent, whose letters were 
always of a very interesting character.— P. D. 
-•»$<-- 
Q n C 3 T T? cp T T? C? 
U W W X vCl X X XlflL O I 
Sevenoaks Gardeners’ and Amateurs’ Mutual Im¬ 
provement.—A meeting of this society was held at the 
Dorset Arms Hotel on Tuesday, the 18th inst. The 
chair was taken by Mr. W. A. Searing, and the 
vice-chair by Mr. Watmough. Mr. J. Smith showed, 
not for couipetition, a splendidly grown and flowered 
Gloxinia. The plant was over 2 ft. through, and 
carried over forty expanded flowers and buds. A 
First Class Certificate was awarded to it. The initial 
business being disposed of, Mr. Searing gave a very 
excellent lecture on the “Culture of Strawberries.” 
These lectures are greatly to be preferred to the 
sometimes long and prosy papers, and are more appre¬ 
ciated by the members. A good discussion ensued, in 
which Messrs. Smith, Denning, Waghorn, White, 
Feaver, and others, took a prominent part. On the 
proposition of Mr. White, seconded by Mr. Feaver, 
Mr. Searing was accorded a very hearty vote of thanks 
for his able addresq and for presiding during the past 
month. 
