December 21, 1889. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
240 
leaves giving the bare tree the appearance of having 
regained its foliage.” 
It is from the Romans we have derived the custom 
of decorating houses and churches with Hully at 
Christmas. They were wont to send boughs to their 
friends during the festival of the Saturnalia, which 
occurred about the same period, and the Oaks being 
then bare of leaves, the priests obliged the people to 
bring in boughs of Holly and evergreens. There is 
little doubt that the early Roman Christians, disre¬ 
garding the Church’s interdiction, introduced the 
heathen practice of decorating their houses with Holly, 
and in course of time connected it with their own 
faith.— Jl. D. 
-- 
G-LEICHENIA DICARPA LONG-I- 
PINNATA. 
The Ferns of this class were once much more popular 
than at present, and it is a matter for regret that they 
are not more largely grown. Formerly they were much 
GALANTHES AT SYON HOUSE. 
One of the Orchid houses at Syon House, Brentford, 
one of the seats of the Duke of Northumberland, is now 
and has been for weeks quite gay with Calanthe Veifchii 
superba. The stages on both sides of the house are occu¬ 
pied almost solely with it. There are a few pieces of C. 
vestiti rubro-oculata, and a number of Poinsettias are 
mixed with the Calanthes. The foliage of the Poin¬ 
settias forms a counterfoil to the nakedness of the 
former ; but the contrast between the scarlet bracts of 
the one, and the rose flowers of the other, is rather too 
violent and wanting in harmony. Mr. Wythes, the 
gardener, is fully cognisant of this, and will remedy 
the defect on another occasion should convenience offer, 
with small Palms, Ferns, or something of that nature. 
A batch of Begonia insignis would be admirably adapted 
for the purpose of supplying foliage, while the pink 
flowers would harmonise with the rose-coloured ones of 
the Calanthe. 
Even as they are one could hardly fail to admire the 
few crocks, and those of large size, are used in the 
bottom, the rest of the space being required for soil. 
The Calanthe is naturally terrestrial, and under 
cultivation proves to be a gross feeder. The reason of 
this will be obvious if we reflect for a minute on the 
amount of work that has to be performed by the roots 
and leaves every year. The whole of the roots, foliage, 
pseudo-bulbs, scapes, and flowers have to be reproduced 
annually ; and to do this the plants must of necessity 
be grown in something more substantial than peat. 
When they commence to grow they are put on a shelf 
near the glass in a house with a tropical temperature 
and an abundance of moisture. After having fairly 
started under such genial conditions they should not 
be kept back or checked in any way, but encouraged 
to make as vigorous a growth as possible. They 
should also enjoy a maximum of light all through the 
summer and autumn, but especially during the latter 
season when the pseudo-bulbs are ripening up. When 
growing vigorously they are fed with liquid manure. 
GlEICHENIA DICARPA LOXGIPINNATA. 
in vogue as exhibition specimens, and were, of course, 
capable of being grown to a very large size. The 
Gleichenias amongst Ferns are remarkable from the 
fact that the fronds seem capable of indefinite elongation, 
simply by the production of side pinnre every year, 
while the plant goes to rest, and the apex of the frond 
assumes the form of a dormant bud, to re-commence 
growth afresh next spring. G. dicarpa is a stove Fern, 
a native of Australia, but it may also be grown in a 
temperate fernery. It is very variable as a species, and 
several forms of it are in cultivation, including the 
subject of this note—namely, G. d. longipinnata— 
which was introduced in 1879, exactly ten years ago. 
The pinnte of this beautiful form are long and feathery, 
while the pinnules are slender, narrowly linear, 
drooping, and graceful. The margins of the same are 
beautifully and regularly crenate, such as we see in no 
other class of Ferns. It will best be understood by 
reference to the accompanying illustration, for which 
we are indebted to Messrs. B. S. Williams & Son, 
Upper Holloway. There is another variety named 
G. d. alpina in cultivation, which is dwarfer and more 
compact than the type, while the midrib and rachis of 
the fronds are covered in a young state with rust- 
coloured, scaly and woolly material. 
vigour of the plant, and the quantity of bloom produced. 
The scapes vary in length from 2 ft. to 4 ft. according 
to the strength of the pseudo-bulbs from which they 
arose ; the flowers on the stronger ones are of 
wonderful size, and some pseudo-bulbs bear a scape on 
the top besides the lateral ones. The average 
vigour of the specimens would have been greater if 
the stock had been grown from good pseudo-bulbs ; 
but this is the first year of their growth at Syon 
House, and many of them were miserably small 
when obtained. 
The system of culture adopted by Mr. Wythes, and 
under which he has attained such success, is very 
different from that given by cultivators generally 
before the true nature of Calanthes were known. Peat 
used to constitute a large part of the compost employed 
in potting them, in fact, nearly the whole of it. In 
this poor material they frequently dwindled in size 
rather than improved, and cultivators often lost large 
quantities of their stock. Now, however, when re¬ 
potted in spring, they are put in a compost consisting 
of three parts strong loam, one of peat and well- 
decomposed cow manure, and some i-in. bones. The 
latter are used in place of small crocks, and thus not 
only supply nourishment, but act as drainage. Very 
The plants now amply testify to the wisdom of the 
above method of treatment, without even taking into 
consideration the small size of the pseudo-bulbs from 
which they were started in spring. 
After they have done flowering they are tiken out of 
the pots in which they were grown and laid thickly in 
pans amoDgst sand till they commence to push in 
spring, when they are re-potted ; all the while, however, 
they are retained in a house with a high temperature. 
If allowed to start again in the soil in which they were 
grown the young roots are liable to be broken in freeing 
them from the compost, but they come easily out of 
moist sand. Three to five pseudo-bulbs, according to 
size, are placed in a 6-in. or 7-in. pot, but always the 
smaller number -when the size warrants it. They are 
now plump, stout, and vary from 6 ins. to 1 ft. in 
length, and under the same treatment something grand 
may be expected from them next year. It may here 
be stated that they are allowed a long season of rest, 
before they are started into growth again. 
-- 
Royal Botanic Society.—The arrangements of this 
society for the coming year include spring shows on 
March 26th and April 23rd ; and summer shows on 
May 14th and June 11th, with an evening fete 
probably on July 2nd. 
