THE GARDENING WORLD 
35S 
February 3, 1894. 
ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS, 
By John Fraser, F.L.S., Kew. 
Arachnanthe Cathcartii in a Wild State. 
Many are the Orchid collections into which this has 
found its way, both in the Old and New Worlds, and 
numerous the failures that have occurred. The 
great beauty and the remarkable structure of the 
flowers ever and anon induces fresh cultivators to 
try their skill with it. In its native home it affects 
thickly wooded places in the vicinity of streams 
where a continuous moisture is rising and keeping 
the atmosphere humid all the year round. It is at 
all times heavily shaded by the thick foliage of over¬ 
hanging trees, so that direct sunshine cannot 
influence or harden its growths. For this reason 
it has what gardeners term a delicate constitution. 
There is an almost continuous rainfall for six months 
of the year, commencing in May, and keeping the 
forests in a drenched and saturated condition. Even 
after this period the atmosphere is kept humid for 
the rest of the year, in the localities where the plants 
grow, by the spray arising from the streams in the 
rocky gorges, and this moisture is maintained in the 
atmosphere by the thick umbrage afforded by the 
rampant vegetation. Cultivators who expect to 
succeed must therefore attempt to imitate natural 
conditions as far as possible by keeping the atmos¬ 
phere humid and the plant shaded'or placed in a 
shady position where the moisture cannot quickly 
dry up. A moist wall or other’surface to which its 
roots can cling would prove favourable to its well¬ 
being. 
Saccolabium bellinum. 
Those who undertake the growth of this plant for 
the first time must not expect it to develop racemes 
a foot or two in length, as in the case of Rhyn- 
chostylis retusa, generally known as Saccolabium 
Blumei, nor like S. giganteum, for its growth and 
habit with regard to the flower stems are quite of a 
different kind. They are short, in fact appearing 
quite abrupt, and bear a fascicle or cluster of flowers 
at the end of the same. The sepals and petals are 
of varying shades of greenish-yellow, more or less 
heavily spotted or blotched with crimson or blackish- 
purple. The lip is white, finely toothed at the 
margin, with a yellow blotch in the centre, on which 
are situated some purple spots. The most attractive 
and charming feature of the whole plant is the heavy 
beard of white hairs covering the greater part of the 
central area of the lip. 
Aspasia epidendroides. 
Judging from the figure of this plant in the Botanical 
Magazine, the flowers vary considerably in the 
matter of colour, when compared with live speci¬ 
mens. The species was originally introduced from 
Panama in 1833 ; but has at no time probably been 
extensively cultivated in this country. A. lunata is 
occasionally met with in gardens, but that bears one 
flower only upon a scape. A. epindendroides 
flowered quite recently with Mr. Geo. Russell, The 
Redlands, Glasgow, whose specimens were imported 
from Nicaragua. The scape bears six flowers, more 
or less, in a one-sided raceme, drooping in such a 
manner that the flowers are reversed. The sepals 
and petals were pale green, heavily banded or 
almost covered with pale brown blotches. The lip 
on the contrary was nearly white with an irregular 
purple blotch near the apex. The figure in the 
Botanical Magazine represents the blotches on the 
sepals and petals intensified to a dark brownish- 
purple. The blotch of that colour on the lip nearly 
covers the whole surface. All the species are epi¬ 
phytical in habit and not unlike some of the species 
of Epidendrum, especially in the structure of the 
flower, with exception however of the pollinia. The 
pseudo-bulbs and leaves are not unlike those of an 
Odontoglossum. They require warmer treatment, 
however, and may be grown in pots or baskets. 
Epidendrum Skinneri. 
In most respects this bears a strong resemblance to 
E. Lindleyanum, and both, of course, belong to 
the section Barkeria, under which name they are 
best known to gardeners. They have cylindrical 
upright stems, and the young growths proceed from 
the sides of the old ones, so that after a number of 
years the plants present a curious appearance, 
greatly heightened by the long stout and gray roots 
which are pushed out from the bases of the new 
growths. The sepals and petals of E. Skinneri are 
rosy purple, and in this respect agree with those of 
E. Lindleyanum. The lip is oblong, rounded at the 
end and appearing emarginate, owing to the short 
and suddenly narrowed point being rolled under¬ 
neath ; the general colour is pink, with a series 
of purple markings near the apex. The column is, 
purple. The species does not seem to be so variable 
in colour as E. Lindleyanum, and is generally paler. 
Some plants flowering in the cool division of the 
Orchid house at Kew bore from three to six flowers 
in a raceme. 
Maxillaria punctata. 
Evidently this is most closely allied to M. picta, 
amongst cultivated species at least, and has been 
frequently confounded with it, but the flowers are 
altogether smaller. The number of them produced 
from a small plant or even from a single pseudo-bulb 
is marvellous, and amply compensates for any 
deficiency in size. They are so deliciously fragrant 
that they might well be employed for mixing with 
other flowers for this quality alone. Each flower 
stem bears only one bloom, as is the custom with 
the Maxillarias generally, but a large number pro¬ 
ceeds from the base of each pseudo-bulb. Each 
can be removed separately as it comes into full 
bloom and utilised amongst cut flowers—a proceed¬ 
ing that will be advantageous in more ways than one, 
besides lightening the strain upon the plant. The 
sepals and petals are creamy-white externally with 
a few deep purple blotches, and pale yellow inter¬ 
nally with the spots appearing through them. The 
lip is white, spotted with purple, and the anther cap 
is of a deep purple. In an ordinary collection it 
may be looked upon as a pet plant, and welcomed 
for its sweet-scented flowers at a season when 
Orchids are by no means over plentiful. 
Saccolabium giganteum. 
To the robust habit of the plant must this name be 
attributed rather than to the size of the flowers. 
The stem isstout,but under cultivation never exceeds 
a few inches in height; its bears rigid and leathery 
leaves about nine inches to twelve inches long and 
two inches to three broad. The drooping racemes 
of well-grown plants equal the leaves in length, and 
bear strongly fragrant flowers that make their 
presence felt through great part of the house in 
which they are grown. The sepals are white with a 
few scattered amethyst purple spots ; the petals are 
narrower with a blotch at the apex, but otherwise 
similar. The three lobes of the lip are erect, the side 
ones being infolded, and all are of a deep amethyst 
purple. There is a variety of this, namely, S. g. 
illustre, often grown under the name of S. illustre, as 
if it were a distinct species. It is characterised by 
its larger and more closely spotted flowers, while the 
lip is also more richly and brightly coloured. In its 
native habitats this plant thrives most satisfactorily 
in the drier districts of Lower Burmah, such as 
Prome and Thayetmyo, where the temperature is 
very high and hot winds blow in the dry season until 
the leaves sometimes get more or less shrivelled and 
scorched. Under cultivation therefore an abundance 
of water should be given during the growing season, 
and the plants well elevated to the glass to expose 
the foliage to as much sunshine as possible. Water 
should to a considerable extent be withheld at the 
same time to induce the plants to go to rest. The 
flowers appear during winter and are then highly 
appreciable. 
New Gyp iped urns from Belgium. 
Orchid lovers attending the weekly sale at Messrs. 
Protheroe & Morris’ rooms on the 26th ult., were 
gratified with the sight of four striking new Cypri- 
pediums brought over from Ghent by M. Jules Hye. 
Two of them unmistakably stood out as gems of the 
first water, but the one which most took the fancy 
of the growers present was C. triumphans, the result 
of a cross between two natural hybrids, C. oenan- 
thum superbum and C. Sallierii. The dorsal sepal 
is like Sallierii in having a yellow ground, but is 
heavily spotted with plum-black, and has the margin 
shaded with soft rose. The lip is like that of C. 
villosum, but darker in colour than any we had seen 
before. The second variety was unnamed, but was 
very large in all its parts, and nearer in its solidity 
and rotundity to what may be called a florists’ flower 
than any sort yet produced. It comes from C. 
Spicerianum and C. tonsum, and has a grand dorsal 
sepal, 3 in. across, white, with bronze-green vena¬ 
tion, and an intense purple-brown bar down the 
centre. The lip is large, smooth, and of a rich 
bronze-purple colour. They are both exceedingly 
fine, and their raiser is certainly to be congratulated 
on his acquisition of them. 
ii)0rlD 
Fairy Rings.—The green circles to be seen in thd 
pastures and meadows in various parts of Britain 
have been associated with the folk-lore and fairy 
tales of ancient times, before education was very 
widely diffused amongst the masses and long before 
school boards were heard of. The stories connected 
with them were doubtless considered of great 
importance to our rude forefathers, who believed in 
them when superstition pervaded the masses of 
society, as it would seem to us, to an incredible 
extent. In our days, superstition has receded before 
the advance of science, and the diffusion of know¬ 
ledge generally. Fairy tales have lost their signifi¬ 
cance and even their importance, except so far as 
they appeal to us merely as interesting tales of 
former ages, whose stories have to a great extent 
been divested of all reality. The Fairy Rings so 
called still exist, though they are known to be the 
result of the action of more common place agencies 
than fairies. They are the homes of several species 
of Agarics and other fungi, some of the commonest 
of which are Marasmius oreades, Agaricus gambosus 
and A. arvensis. 
How thi rings are produced. —Doubtless 
many have observed rings, circles or parts of circles 
of grass that are much greener than the grass either 
inside or outside of the band forming the circle, 
Spores are carried by the wind or other natural 
agency, unintentionally we shall say, and dropped in 
some part of a field where they commence to grow 
and radiate in the ground amongst the grass. After 
a time the special materials upon which the mycelium 
of the fungus is living, become exhausted, and the 
fungus not having anything to live upon in that area 
of ground, dies. The roots of grasses finding an 
abundance of nourishment in the decaying fungus, 
grows more strongly for a time, and assumes a 
greener appearance than the grass outside the area 
not yet permeated by the fungus. At first the grass 
presents the appearance of a green patch, but when 
the decaying remains of the fungus in turn become ex¬ 
hausted the grass in the centre of the patch presents 
a more starved appearance through the exhaustion of 
the soil than it did previous to the arrival of the 
fungus spores. The bright green portion then for 
the first time presents the appearance of a ring, 
which goes on increasing in size year after year as 
the radiating threads of the mycelium penetrate 
fresh ground. Sometimes the rings get broken or 
irregular owing to some obstruction to the growth of 
the fungus at the broken part, or an accident or want 
of proper food may check its accustomed progress 
and so lead to irregularities in the ring. 
Results of Exhaustio.i to the Soil'.—In very 
old pasture that has not been disturbed for many 
years, another set of operations sometimes comes 
into play. The grasses, not being able to hold their 
own in an impoverished soil, partly die out, leaving 
the soil to be occupied with something else. Plants 
that are able to extract nourishment from a poor 
soil get established inside the ring, even thrive, and 
produce a vegetation more or less perfectly different 
from that outside the green circle. Amongst these 
may be found 'Wild Thyme, Bird’s-foot Trefoil, 
Woundwort, grasses that manage to eke out an 
existence on poor soil, and other plants that 
naturally occur on dry banks and thin or gravelly 
land. Where the meadow is naturally rich the 
differences may not be so great, and grasses may 
continue to cover the area, though in much less 
flourishing condition for a time at least, until the 
land partly recovers itself. All this time the living 
and growing portion of the fungus is really outside 
the green circle. We cannot feel surprised that in 
an age of superstition all this should be attributed 
to the work or enchantments of fairies or other 
supernatural agencies, more especially if the area 
inside the ring supported a markedly different vege¬ 
tation. Yet when science explains the matter and 
can show that all this is due to natural agencies, 
whose workings we can explain, all the wonder is 
gone and the mystery dissipated. Moreover, it 
seems to us that there should be more wonder in the 
science which can explain the real, and more interest 
in reality than in mystery, or in peopling the 
imagination with the doings of beings which do not 
exist. 
