178 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
November 21, 1891. 
upper half, while the petals have a raised crimson 
line running along the centre. The typical D. P. 
Schroderianum has white sepals and petals passing 
into rose in the upper half. The darkest variety we 
noted was one having petals of a uniform rich dark 
purple, with the lamina of the lip of a similar hue, 
while all the lower portion -was of an intense purple- 
crimson. Some of the plants showed a branching 
flower scape, giving rise to great expectations when 
they become established. The typical D. P. 
Statterianum, as figured in the Reichenbachia, has deep 
purple sepals and petals, and a darker lip, the side 
lobes being almost crimson. There is another form 
of this variety in commerce having smaller flowers 
of a nearly uniform dark purple. 
The visitor to St. Albans will find much of in¬ 
terest besides the Elephant Moth Dendrobe, and 
many cultural points of importance in the extensive 
labyrinth of buildings devoted to Orchids and other 
subjects. There are some grand pieces of Vanda 
Lowii, one of which is over 6 ft. high, grown in a 
pot; and another in a huge basket, and consisting of 
three large stems, besides some smaller ones. In 
order to supply atmospheric moisture a brick wall 
like the gable end of a house, and capable of absorb¬ 
ing one hundred pails of water, has been built on 
purpose, and the Vandas stood in front of it. The 
greater number of houses are built on sloping ground, 
and at the lower end, and abutting on a long corri¬ 
dor, are many interesting pieces of rockwork built, of 
Derbyshire tufa and cemented together. Many 
large pieces of Orchids are planted or inserted in the 
pockets, and several of them, including Epidendrum 
Cooperianum, are nearly always in flower. This 
species has the sepals and petals deeply flushed 
with purple, and the lip rose-coloured. E. C. callo- 
glossuin has lighter coloured and more pleasing 
flowers. Both have pendulous, densely-flowered 
racemes of bloom. Alongside of them E. raniferum 
and others are also flowering freely. In another 
house Odontoglossum Reichenheimii may be seen 
with its long branching racemes of bloom. Cypripe- 
diums are largely represented, and the quantity of 
hybrid seedlings is simply extraordinary. Some 
were flowering and others just approaching that 
stage. C. Meynardi, a hybrid between C. Spiceria- 
num and C. purpuratum, showed the dwarf habit 
of both parents, and intermediate characters as to 
colour. The upper sepal is white with a green patch 
at the base and purple veins upward. A fine variety 
ust opening was a hybrid between C. Spicerianum 
and C. Harrisianum. Amongst older sorts C. 
Arthurianum, C. Leeanum superbum, C. callosum, 
a yellow C. insigne, and C. i. violaceum-punctatum 
exhibited great variety in form and colouring. The 
huge flowers of C. grande were very striking. True to 
its season Cattleya Bowringiana serves to enliven the 
Cattleya house, in which a large assortment of 
others are now showing their flowering sheaths and 
looking happy. 
To lovers of cool Orchids a most interesting fea¬ 
ture may be seen in the shape of two houses, each 
300 ft. long, planted out with many thousands of 
Odontoglossum crispum and O. Pescatorei, chiefly 
the former, in beds of sandy peat. The clean and 
healthy condition of the foliage, as well as the size of 
the young pseudo-bulbs, show that the plants like the 
treatment. The last made pseudo-bulbs are three 
times as long as that immediately preceding them ; 
and the fleshy, vigorous roots are 12 in. to 15 in. long, 
clinging to the soil with smaller fibres in a surpris¬ 
ing manner. Smaller lengths of staging are also 
planted out in the same wiy in other houses. Sus¬ 
pended in one of the cool houses is a beautiful rosy- 
flowered piece of Odontoglossum Rossii rosaceum, 
and on the opposite side of the house some rich, 
dark flowered pieces of Mesospinidium vulcanicum. 
The Masdevallias are grown in loam, peat and 
sphagnum, and their leathery, dark green leaves 
show that they appreciate the treatment. The stock 
of Epidendrum vitellinum majus is large, and the 
fine pieces of recently imported stuff are getting 
strongly established. The quantity of Odonto¬ 
glossum vexillarium, both full grown stuff and young 
pieces, ranged on benches 250 ft. long, show that 
this species is a speciality at St. Albans. Pleiones, 
Lycaste Skinneri alba, and Cypripedium Schlimii 
are flowering beautifully; and Odontoglossum 
Roezlii and its whitejvariety are also commencing to 
make a display. The fragrant little Oncidium cheiro- 
phorum is flowering in quantity. Lcelia anceps in 
baskets suspended over water and rockwork is brist: 
ling with flower scapes that must be grand in a short 
time. Very interesting, also, is the house with a large 
tank along the centre, and used for the culture of 
Water Lilies in summer. At present the tank is 
nearly dry, and the area over head occupied with 
hundreds of Dendrobiums in the resting stage, sus¬ 
pended in baskets with the closeness and regularity 
of an army on the march. 
Stove Plants. 
Although Orchids are the leading feature at St. 
Albans, yet various plants are grown in some of the 
houses for decorative effect in situations not adapted 
for Orchid culture. Prominent among them was 
Begonia corallina, Sander's var, raised by a gardener, 
and possessed of great decorative value The stems 
are 10 ft. to 12 ft. high, and have been flowering 
grandly for some time past, with large pendent cymes 
of bloom from the axils of every leaf on the upper 
portion of the shoots. The pedicels, ovaries, and 
broad wings of the latter are soft coral-pink, while the 
sepals are somewhat paler. When kept growing it 
flowers all the year round, and is highly serviceable 
at Christmas in the cut state. The leathery, half 
ovate leaves are 6 in. long. A house is devoted to 
the cultivation of new stove plants, and amongst 
them we noted some fine pieces of Maranta Sanderi- 
ana with oblong-ovate or elliptic leaves of large size, 
variegated with ascending pink or white bands 
regularly arranged on each side of the midrib on a 
deep, shining, .olive-green ground. The under surface 
is of a uniform deep, reddish purple. A new 
Cyanophyllum has deep olive-green leaves, with five 
prominent ribs, of which the three 'central ones are 
silvery in the young state. It comes from Brazil. 
Here also was the rare Nepenthes Madagascarensis 
with bronzy-red pitchers and prominently fringed 
wings. A new Doryopteris' w'as notable for the 
breadth of the segments of its fronds. A variegated 
Pandanus exhibited the peculiarity of being without 
spines either at the margins or midribs of its leaves. 
A Dracaena variegated with broad creamy white 
bands also gives good promise. 
The Anthuriums and Alocasias in other houses 
show by the leathery character of their foliage and 
healthy condition, that other plants besides Orchids 
receive a due share of attention. The sheds and 
potting benches at either end of the long ranges of 
houses were occupied with workmen busily engaged 
in potting, staking, and packing plants. 
SCOTTISH NOTES. 
Potatos and their Culture.— Respecting field- 
grown produce in this district, the second early and 
late sorts are said to be abundant and of good 
quality, in consequence of which a fall in the prices 
is feared. The principal varieties grown are Sutton’s 
Regent, Sutton’s Abundance, and the Bruce. Garden 
crops, as far as I have heard, have also been very sat¬ 
isfactory, and on land under my charge, which has 
been regularly cropped with Potatos for many years, 
very gratifying results have been realised. Of course 
such a practice is not in accordance with the rotation 
theory, which in the management of farm and garden 
land alike is generally recommended. Necessity, 
however, compels us to disregard the rotation system, 
the inroads of rabbits preventing us from cropping 
a considerable extent of land outside the garden walls, 
otherwise than with Leeks, Turnips, Jerusalem and 
Globe Artichokes, and Potatos, the latter crop 
necessarily occupying by far the greatest space. 
In wet seasons the average yield of sound tubers 
cannot be computed at more than one third of a crop, 
and the favourable exception this season was, I think, 
mainly attributable to the extremely dry condition of 
the soil at the beginning of August speedily absorbing 
the abundant moisture which followed shortly after¬ 
wards. Under such conditions a second growth of 
the tubers frequently results, but this does not seem to 
have been prevalent either with regard to farm or 
garden produce this autumn. 
All the varieties I have grown and tested recently 
were of good quality, Puritan, as previously stated 
in your pages, being quite first-rate, either as a forcer 
or from the open border. Then follows Veitch’s and 
Sharp’s Kidneys, also very good but not so large, 
white, and mealy as the former. Duke of Albany is 
a second early sort, kidney shaped, and of superb 
quality. In second early round sorts, Imries’ Earl)', 
Sutton’s Regent, and Sutton's Abundance, wereeach 
of high table quality, and, according to reports from 
the culinary department, excelling field-grown pro* 
duce, which was latterly supplied. Magnum Bonum 
and the Bruce are still two of the best late sorts ; 
both are good croppers, and of fine quality when used 
in their proper season. The former is sometimes 
very good when just fresh from the soil, and from 
early made plantations. They, however, afterwards 
deteriorate in quality till well into May and onwards 
till the middle of July, at which period they are in 
the best condition ; indeed, when supplying them one 
season at the period referred to, I was asked by my 
employer whether they were new Potatos. 
Reverting to the cultivation of Potato land in 
gardens, such plots or borders as have necessarily 
to be cropped with Potatos year after year in suc¬ 
cession, ought to be trenched or double dug as 
frequently as possible, in order to secure as deep a 
surface layer of fresh earth as will form a good bed 
for the roots to established themselves in. And 
where such is available a liberal dressing of well 
prepared material from the garden compost heap 
may with advantage be applied to land which may 
have been too heavily manured for a number of years, 
which is of itself calculated to aggravate the spread 
of disease in unfavourable seasons. 
One of the best crops I ever lifted as regards good 
quality and average size was from a plot specially 
made up of road scrapings, a considerable part of 
which consisted of half-decayed leaves and horse 
droppings. In this compost the sets were planted in 
the usual way with the result indicated. The ground 
on which this plot was formed had previously been 
almost worthless for cropping purposes, and there 
was practically no other means of utilising it than by 
the method adopted. The fallacy of planting 
Potatos on low and flat situations has been often 
apparent to me. This was perhaps most strikingly 
illustrated in the year 1872, when living in 
Argyllshire in a district where the land frequently 
diverges into hill and dale within a comparatively 
small radius. The season referred to was about 
the worst on record for the ravages of the Potato 
disease, the results being that by far the greatest per¬ 
centage of affected tubers was found in the lowest 
plantations.— D. Mackie, Ayrshire. 
Howick Horticultural Association.— At the 
usual monthly meeting held on the 6th inst., Mr. J. 
Forbes presiding, Mr. William Craig,-plant foreman 
at the Tweed Vineyard, Clovenfords, read a well- 
reasoned, practical paper on Soils,Potting and Water¬ 
ing, in which he dealt with the subjects in the order 
named, and carefully explained the minutiae of the 
various operations upon which success in plant cul¬ 
tivation depended. As to failures he believed that 
more were attributable to careless watering than was 
generally admitted. A spirited discussion subse¬ 
quently took place, and Mr. Craig was warmly 
thanked for his paper. 
THE BOUVARDIA.* 
So far as the neighbourhood of Preston is con¬ 
cerned I think I may safely preface my remarks with 
the somewhat hackneyed phrase that “ this plant is 
not grown so much as it ought to be." Why, is 
perhaps better known to my hearers than to myself. 
Many years ago the few odd plants seen in gardens 
of some pretentions even, were huddled up with the 
occupants of the stove, and the idea may still pre¬ 
vail in some quarters that they require stove plant 
treatment, and those not possessed of a stove may 
have been deterred from growing them, while others 
having such a structure may have tried to grow 
them and failed, because the plants dislike such 
codling. 
In the South I have planted the Bouvardia out in 
well-manured borders in June, and lifted and potted 
them in September. In some large establishments 
they are lifted and planted in disused Melon or 
Cucumber houses, and the quantity and quality of 
the flowers produced in this way are marvellous. I 
have potted plants with numbers of shoots two to 
three feet long on a plant, sent up sucker like from 
the base. Planted in a frame in May on a gentle hot¬ 
bed I have had them equally as good in Lancashire. 
Treated on the planting out system the plants after 
being lifted require to be kept close and shaded, 
also syringed once or twice daily according to the 
weather. The most suitable place I have found for 
them has been a sunk pit with a flow and return hot- 
* A paper read by Mr. W.P. Roberts, Cuerdon Hall Gardens, 
at the November meeting of the Prestou and Ftjlwood Hor; 
ticultural Society, 
