March 12, 1892. 
487 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
gyne cristata alba, with singularly chaste pure 
white blossoms. The curiously spotted form of 
Dendrobium nobile, known as Backhousianum, and 
those grand hybrids, D. Leechianum, D. Ainsworthii 
and D. Ainsworthii roseum, are also finely in bloom. 
Another valuable garden hybrid is Phajus Cooksoni, 
which is represented by a plant with two fine spikes 
intermediate in height between its parents, and bear¬ 
ing brightly coloured blossoms. The cool Orchids 
are bristling with spikes, and in this department we 
note the recent introduction—Cochlioda Noezlianum, 
which gives promise of becoming one of the most 
widely grown of Orchids. 
One of the most interesting houses in the nursery 
shortly will be that devoted to Amaryllis, the plants 
in which are now throwing up their stout flower stems 
with remarkable profusion ; and not less gay 
certainly will be the Clivia House, which now 
contains one of the best collections to be seen any¬ 
where. Of the effective character of these plants 
when in full bloom some idea may be gleaned from 
the annexed illustration, prepared from a photograph 
taken last year, and kindly placed at our service by 
Mr. Henry Williams, but they must be seen to be 
FALKLAND PARK. 
This fine estate is pleasantly situated on the brow of 
South Norwood Hill, and overlooks a wide area of 
Surrey, the view being broken only by different 
ranges of the Surrey hills in the distance. The 
estate was recently acquired by Thomas McMeekin, 
Esq., but since then has been completely trans¬ 
formed. A new mansion of two stories in height, 
built of Portland stone and white bricks, is now all 
but completed although not occupied. It is rect¬ 
angular in form with several wings and an entrance 
on each of the four aspects ; internally it is fitted up 
with all the modern conveniences of a dwelling 
house, and electric wires for the lighting of the 
different rooms are laid all over the building. A 
flower garden to match the surroundings is being 
laid out round the house, and a balustrade separates 
this portion of the ground from the green sward 
sloping in various directions towards the valley 
below. Many of the larger beds both inside and 
outside the balustrade will be occupied with flowering 
and other shrubs, including deciduous Azaleas, 
Rhododendrons, and others which do well here. 
still in bloom, notwithstanding the fact that the 
winter is practically now past. Some are, however, 
spring-flowering plants, including Clematis indivisa, 
but others in bloom are Solanum jasminoides, Eccre- 
mocarpus scaber, and a dark form of Habrothamnus 
elegans, evidently H. e. Newelli. On each side of 
the clean washed slate pathway are numerous 
flowering plants of Indian Azaleas, Hyacinths, 
1 ulips, etc., in pots. A large number of other sub¬ 
jects not yet in flower must serve to keep up an 
interesting display all through the summer. 
The house at the end of the range nearest the 
mansion may be described as a show-hcuse or green¬ 
house, for there is already a fine display of various 
spring plants in flower. Amongst others we noted 
Acacia ovata, A grandis, A. Drummondi, and others, 
also fine plants of Grevillea Thelemanniana, Erios- 
temon myoporoides, Cytisus stenopetalus, Boronia 
megastigma, and various Heaths in bloom. There 
are numerous Clivias, two varieties of which are 
very fine. One of them has large, deep orange-red 
flowers, with a white throat extending well up the 
side of the segments; another has somewhat paler 
flowers with white tips to the segments. On the 
The Clivia House, Victoria and Paradise Nurseries, Hclloway. 
thoroughly appreciated, as many saw the beautiful 
group from Iwerne at the Drill Hall on Tuesday. 
-- 
DENDROBIUM NOBILE 
NOBILIUS. 
A magnificent bloom of this variety has reached us 
from Mr. James Brown, gardener to R. B. White, 
Esq., Arddarroch, Gareloch Head, N.B. It 
measured 3} in. across the petals, and the latter were 
close upon an inch in diameter. All parts were also 
of great substance. The narrowly, oblong, blunt 
sepals were of a rich purple almost to the very base, 
where, of course they were somewhat paler, especially 
the lateral ones. The broadly oblong petals were 
similar in colour, but darker towards the apex. The 
lip was notable for the length of its tubular portion, 
which was of a dark crimson internally and deep 
purple externally, these colours being due to the 
richness and size of the blotch ; then came a creamy 
white band across the lamina, and the broad tip was 
of an intense purple. The variety has just bloomed 
for the first time at Arddarroch, proving it to be the 
true D. n. nobilius. Accompanying the above were 
the three leading forms of Coelogyne cristata, namely 
the type, also C. c. lemoniana, with its lemon fringe 
of coarse hairs along the centre of the lip, and C. c. 
alba, of a clean pure white. 
The old mansion occupies a slope of the hill and 
at a lower level. A splendid new range of hothouses, 
built a few years ago, occupies a prominent position 
from whence the ground slopes more or less rapidly 
in all directions, and within a few hundred yards of 
the new mansion. The hothouses themselves vary 
in form according to their position, but most of them 
run at right angles to a long corridor into 
which all of them open. The corridor also com¬ 
municates with the potting sheds behind and which 
are fitted up with every convenience. The garden 
office, and the young men's bothies are also on the 
north aspect of the back wall of the corridor. No 
expense has been spared in fitting up everything to 
meet modern requirements. The new conservatory 
abutting on the mansion is well adapted for plant 
growth, but is not yet completed. A fern cave 
forming a wing to the conservatory is being fitted up 
with.an elaborate rockwork of Derbyshire tufa and 
concrete. A rockery is also in course of construction 
in the open ground, the centre of which is occupied 
by a winding water-course with pools of water 
connected one with the other. The laying out and 
the planting of all these will occupy the gardener, 
Mr. A. Wright, for some time to come. 
The corridor connecting all the plant houses to¬ 
gether is of great length, and the back wall is planted 
with a great variety of climbers, some of wffiich are 
side shelves are fine plants of Pittosporum Tobira, 
Ardisia crenulata in fruit, male and female forms of 
Skimmia japonica, and others. There w r ere also fine 
specimens of Agave americana, A. filifera in dense 
rosettes i8in. deep by 2 ft. broad, and larger sam¬ 
ples of what are evidently A. Salmiana, Senecio 
Kaempferi albo-variegata. 
In another house occupied wdth greenhouse plants 
was a standard specimen of Polygala Dalmaisiana 
about a yard in height and more in wddth. Cytisus 
racemosus floribundus is a compact-habited, free- 
flowering plant. Another house was similarly occu¬ 
pied with greenhouse subjects, including Acacia 
lineata, A. Riceana, A. armata, A. grandis, A. 
platyptera, the Otaheite Orange in fruit, and others, 
A stove known as No. 4 contains a large number of - 
interesting fine-foliaged plants such as Anthurium 
Warocqueanum, A. crystallinum, A. Andreanum, A. 
Scherzianum, Tillandsia tessellata, and T. hiero- 
glyphica ; the irregular bands of deep olive green on 
the latter are interesting as they are hieroglyphical. 
Other handsome fine foliaged plants are Aralia 
elegantissima, Cyanophyllum magnificum, Dracaena 
fragrans Lindeni, D. f. Massangeana, and a tall 
plant of Acalyphatricolor with parti-coloured leaves 
each about a foot square. There are also strong 
pieces of Curculigo recurva variegata. Amongst 
flowering plants were good plants of Begonia 
glaucophylla splendens and Isoloma hirsuta. 
