November 28, 1891. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
193 
second, and three third prizes at Edinburgh, and the 
same week won a cup, a gold medal, and four first 
prizes at Stirling. Mr. Watt served his apprentice¬ 
ship at Ormiston, near Edinburgh, and afterwards 
was foreman to Mr. Mair, at the Arboretum, 
Birmingham, to Mr. Smith at the Vice-Regal Lodge, 
Dublin, and to Mr. Hugh Crichton, at Bellaire near 
Greenock, with whom he stayed four years. He has 
been gardener at Black House some five years, and 
with many subjects has proved himself to be an able 
cultivator. Mr. Watt is a rising man, and we con¬ 
gratulate him on his recent well-deserved triumph. 
The Woodbridge Horticultural Society will hold 
its next annual exhibition on July 7th, 1892. We 
understand that there will be an open competition 
at this show for twenty-four Roses, the first prize 
being a £25 Cup. 
LATE-FLOWERING 
WATER LILIES. 
By repotting into fresh material annually in March, 
and keeping up the temperature of the house and 
the water of the tank to 65° or 70°, the stove species 
are capable of keeping up a display till late into the 
autumn months. The plants may be grown in large 
pots or tubs sunk about 8 in. or thereby beneath the 
surface of the water. The soil, or rather the com¬ 
post, to be used should consist of good fibrous loam, 
well decayed cow manure, and sand, draining the 
bottom well so as to ensure intercom¬ 
munication between the soil in the 
bottom of the pot and the water outside. 
Those who desire to see Nymphseas in 
their fully expanded and best state should 
visit the house in which they are grown 
some time before midday. The bulk of 
them partly close after that time, and 
remain in that condition for the rest 
of the afternoon. Nymphsea Stella zanzi- 
barensis is an exception, as the flowers 
remain open during the greater part of 
the afternoon, particularly in bright 
weather. It is, moreover, in other re- 
pects one of the finest of all Water Lilies, 
by reason of its rich colour. The 
sepals are green on the outer face but 
purple internally, while the petals are 
of an intense blue shaded with purple. 
The Berlin variety of N. stelleta is 
characterised by the petals being of a 
rich sky blue. 
The forms of N. Lotus, or Egyptian 
Lotus, are also amongst the choicest and 
most ornamental on account of the size 
and rich colours of several of them. 
There are red and white-flowered varie¬ 
ties, and N. Lotus Devoniensis was 
raised as a cross between them. The 
flowers of this form are of a bright 
rosy-red, with the sepals of a bronzy- 
red externally. It is valuable for 
keeping up a display from early 
summer almost into winter provided the temperature 
is kept up. N. L. Ortgiesiana is another form of 
garden origin somewhat similar to N. L. Devonien¬ 
sis, but paler in colour, as the petals are of a beauti¬ 
ful soft rose, and the sepals of a bronzy red exter¬ 
nally. When in perfection the rosy hue of the large 
flowers is quite charming. As a contrast to the 
above N. L. dentata should always be grown where 
space can be afforded, even if one of the red varie¬ 
ties should have to be given up. The peltate leaves 
are toothed at the margin, and undulated to such an 
extent at the margin as to give them quite a wavy 
appearance as they lie upon the water ; and when 
the plant is making vigorous growth they often at¬ 
tain a diameter of 2 ft. The flowers also attain 
similar gigantic proportions under favourable con¬ 
ditions, varying from 6 in. to 14 in. in diameter, with 
pure white petals ; the sepals green externally and 
the mass of stamens in the centre of a bright or gol¬ 
den-yellow. The variety is even more floriferous in 
the autumn than the above named, with exception 
perhaps of N. stellata zanzibarensis; and both 
should be included even in the most select collec¬ 
tions. 
Should the autumn months prove very unfavour¬ 
able to growth owing to the prevalence of fogs and 
the consequent absence of light, it may not be 
possible to keep the plants growing in a healthy 
condition, without which satisfactory flowering would 
be impossible. In such unfavourable seasons, the 
cultivator would have to allow his plants to go to 
rest earlier to avoid overtaxing the tubers or rhi¬ 
zomes of his plants as the case may be. The present 
autumn hitherto has been very mild, and the light 
unusually good for November, so that the 
Nymphaeas above named have been able to prolong 
their period of flowering up till now. When they 
show signs of diminishing vigour, the temperature .of 
the house should be gradually lowered, and the 
water of the tank at the same time partly drawn off. 
Some cultivators empty the tank completely and 
merely supply the plants in the pots with as much 
water as will keep the soil from absolutely getting 
dry. A more natural method of treatment however 
would be to have the pots standing in water up to 
the rim till the annual repotting in March, when of 
course the tank would have to be emptied, thoroughly 
cleaned out and refilled, at the same time gradually 
raising the temperature of the water and the atmo¬ 
sphere of the house to its former standard. 
DENDROBIUM LEEANUM. 
The stems of this new species vary from 2 ft. to 
3^ ft. in length, and bear the flower scapes laterally 
near the apex while they are in a leafless condition. 
The scapes are 12 in. to 18 in. long, bearing a raceme 
of bloom on their upper portion. The upper sepal 
is lanceolate, white, and suffused with rosy-purple 
Dendrobium Leeanum. 
on the upper half; the lateral ones are connate at the 
base, forming a short spur, white, and suffused with 
purple on the upper three-fourths of their length, 
the colour deepening towards the apex. The petals 
are much smaller, spathulate, slightly twisted, deep 
purple on the upper portion and paler towards the 
narrow base. The lip is three-lobed, with the lateral 
lobes rounded, and the terminal lobe roundly ovate, 
cuspidate, and all deep purple, with a five-ridged 
crest developed into five shortly toothed, deep pur¬ 
ple plates on the base of the middle lobe. The 
column is greenish-white, tinted with purple round 
the anther cap, and green on the face. It was intro¬ 
duced from New Guinea with the Elephant Moth 
Dendrobe, but unfortunately is the only specimen 
that has yet appeared of it. The plant is now 
flowering with Massrs. F. Sander & Co., St. Albans, 
who exhibited it at the Drill Hall, Westminster, on 
the xoth inst., and was awarded a First-class Certifi- 
for it. 
SOUVENIR DE LA MAL- 
MAISON ROSE. 
I AM not in the least surprised at the success of 
'■ C. M.” with this old Bourbon Rose, but he seems 
not to know that he writes from the very heart of 
the district which supplies flowers and vegetables to 
the Manchester and other markets, and I should like 
to know the Rose that would not grow and flower 
well with him or in his district. Perhaps “ C M.” is 
not aware that a short time ago first prizes for hardy 
herbaceous and Alpine plants were won at the Whit- 
Week Exhibition by his almost next door neighbours, 
and two or three years ago the first prize for Roses 
was gained by a gentleman (for district-grown Roses) 
about the samedistance from Manchester as 11 C.M.’ 
writes from. 
Now if ”C. M.” would go from Victoria station 
in an easterly direction, he would alter his opinion 
about the Malmaison and other Roses, and would 
soon come to the conclusion that no Rose would 
grow—for I do not believe that there is a tree of any 
description of any size between Manchester and 
Smithy Bridge but what is in a state of decay. When 
I came to reside here about a dozen years ago, there 
were a few Oak trees, but they are all gone, the few 
Elms are fast going, the Sycamore and the Ash are 
stunted and just struggling for existence, the Haw¬ 
thorn fences are all gappy, while, on looking round 
this afternoon, I could not help deploring the sad 
state of affairs, and if " C. M.” were to see these he 
would wonder how the Bourbon Rose Reine Victoria 
grew like a Willow. 
The Rose under glass seems to do very kindly with 
“ C. M. ” ; when I grew it under glass it generally had 
two periods of flowering during the summer season, and 
in the winter, like most other Rose trees, lost its leaves; 
but, by “ C.M.’s” remarks, it must in his case be a 
thorough perpetual. Now I wonder what 
the florists of Sale and elsewhere have 
been doing all these years in not find¬ 
ing the merits of this Rose out before 
it was given to the world. They certainly 
have missed a golden opportunity which, 
perhaps, may never occur again. Is not 
this Rose a little cross-eyed ?—James 
Percival, Smithy Bridge, Rochdale. 
I consider this variety one of the very 
best Roses we have for suburban dis¬ 
tricts, its vigorous constitution usually 
withstanding onslaughts of smoke, smut, 
and sulphuric acid gases with impunity. 
It flowers outside with us until cut off by 
frost. The greatest objections to light 
coloured flowers near to towns is their 
liability to become dirty and soiled—these 
should always be used sparingly. This 
Rose, having strong glaucous wood and 
foliage, the slightest shower cleanses the 
leaves, and again opens the pores. I 
have invariably noted, as a matter of 
fact, that our very best town trees and 
shrubs are those having leaves of shiny 
leathery texture, as, for instance, Au- 
cubas, common Laurels, Hollies, Privets, 
and Laburnums, &c. The thinner the 
membrane of the leaf the more unfit is 
theplant for town planting.— B,L.,Lindly, 
Huddersfield. 
THE NUT HARVEST. 
The close of the nut harvest suggests the reflection 
that edible nuts, though largely used as table luxuries, 
are rarely regarded as staple articles of food. There 
is a popular idea, says the Morning Post, that they 
are indigestible, though this has had little or no ad¬ 
verse influence upon the popular custom of associa¬ 
ting them with a glass of wine after dinner. The 
Filbert, the Cobnut, and the Walnut are usually em¬ 
ployed for this purpose, though inferior to none of 
these is the Sweet Chestnut, or Spanish Chestnut as 
it is often termed. Like the Walnut, this Chestnut is 
not a native of Britain. Nevertheless, it thrives 
well in the southern counties, and, besides being a tree 
of large habit and handsome foliage, it produces, 
when of sufficient age, an abundance of fruit. 
Amongst other places, Knole Park, in Kent,furnishes 
a big annual yield of Chestnuts, and in many of the 
•• enclosures ” of the New Forest the Sweet Chest¬ 
nut contributes its share to the annual downfall of 
“ mast," to which Acorns and Beech Nuts largely 
contribute, upon which swine fatten, and from xvhich 
the squirrel draws its winter store of food. In Italy 
and the South of France the Sweet Chestnut has for 
centuries been cultivated as an article of human food, 
and Pliny states that in his day the Romans distin¬ 
guished eight varieties. As regards digestibility, it 
is well known that whilst the raw nut is rather indi- 
