August 4, 1894. 
THfi GAkbfeiSllNG WORLD 
7b 
ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
By John Fraser, F.L.S., Kew. 
Thl undermentioned Orchids received certificates 
according to merit at the meeting of the Royal 
Horticultural Society on the 24th ult:— 
Sobralia Veitchi, Nov. hyb. 
This magnificent hybrid opens up a new field, for 
it is really the first hybrid Sobralia. The seed 
parent was S. macrantha, and S. xantholeuca was 
the pollen bearer. It partakes of the dwarf habit of 
the latter, and the upright stems are clothed with 
lanceolate, acuminate, ribbed leaves. The revolute 
sepals and oblong, crisped petals are white. The 
lip has a white tube and a large, orbicular, undulated 
lamina of a delicate pink, with pale yellowish veins, 
and passing into pale then deep yellow at the base 
and in the throat, extending thence to the base of 
the tube. First-class Certificate. Exhibited by 
Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, Chelsea. 
Laelio Cattleya Zephyra, Nov. hyb. bigen. 
The pseudo-bulbs of this bigeneric hybrid at present 
are elliptic and only two inches long, bearing a 
solitary oblong leaf. The seed-bearer was Cattleya 
Mendelii and the pollen parent Laelia xanthina, after 
which the progeny takes very largely. The oblong 
sepals are pale yellow, and the oblong-lanceolate 
petals pale nankin. The latter are slightly folded 
along the middle as in L. crispa. The tube of the 
lip is pale yellow but deeper internally, while the 
orbicular and much-crisped lamina is deep purple 
with a white edge. Altogether the combination of 
colours is very unusual. First-class Certificate. 
Exhibited by Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons. 
Cattleya Hardyana laversinense, ATou. vav. 
The sepals of this beautiful variety are soft purple 
spotted with white. The petals on the contrary are 
dark purple spotted with white along the centre and 
closely netted with slender, forking white veins 
towards the sides. The lamina of the lip is large, 
deeply bifid, and rich crimson-purple, the latter hue 
extending to the base of the tube, which is lined 
with orange. On each side of the throat is a large, 
golden yellow eye spot. First-class Certificate. 
Exhibited by the Rt. Hon. Lord Rothscild, Tring 
Park, Tring. 
Cattleya Hardyana, Tring Park var., Nov.var. 
The sepals and petals respectively are several 
shades paler than those of the previously named 
variety. The lip has a Lilac edge to the crimson 
lamina ; but the throat and eye-spots are golden 
yellow and extend over a wide area of the lamina 
and the side lobes so that the latter have only a 
narrow purple margin. There were five huge 
flowers on a spike of this variety to which a cultural 
commendation was awarded as well as a First-class 
Certificate. Exhibited by the Rt. Hon. Lord 
Rothschild. 
Galeandra lagoensis, Nov. sp. 
The pseudo-bulbs of this species are ovoid and sur¬ 
mounted with slender stems about i8in. high, 
bearing linear, channelled, and ribbed leaves. The 
sepals and petals are all directed upwards, lanceo¬ 
late, revolute at the tips and brownish green. The 
lip, on the contrary, is drooping with a pale purple 
tube and side lobes; its lamina is short, broadly 
ovate and dark dull purple. The throat is white 
with four purple lines on its upper half. Award of 
Merit. Exhibited by Messrs. F. Sander & Co., St. 
Albans. 
Lycaste Schonbrunnensis. 
The sepals of this Lycaste are ovate-oblong and 
rosy purple. The petals are ovate, white and 
suffused with pink, but chiefly above the middle. 
The lip has purple and yellow side lobes, but the 
terminal lobe is white, spotted with purple. The 
yellow tongue or crest is striped with crimson. 
Award of Merit. Exhibited by Messrs. F. Sander & 
Co., St. Albans. 
Pleurothallis Kranzlinii, Nov. sp. 
The leaves of this curious little species are ovate, 
leathery, rigid, and opaque. At the very base of the 
lamina of the leaf is a small cluster of flowers of 
diminutive size. The upper sepal is lined with 
purple, while the two lateral ones are connate and 
crimson. The petals are small and lined with 
purple while the lip is small and yellow. Botanical 
Certificate. Exhibited by Messrs. F. Sander & Co. 
Catasetum Chrystyanum. 
This curious species was originally described in 
1882 by the late Professor Reichenbach. The 
oblong pseudo-bulbs are 6 in. to 8 in. long, and the 
scapes 18 in. The sepals are oblong, concave, deep 
brown and green externally. The petals are more 
conspicuous and spotted with dark purple. The 
lip has an orbicular base fringed at the margin and 
green spotted with brown, the small terminal lobe 
being of the same colour. The sac or spur is conical 
with a curious opening like the mouth of an animal. 
Botanical Certificate. Exhibited by Messrs. F. 
Sander & Co., St. Albans. 
Habenaria carnea nivosa, Nov. var. 
The flowers of this beautiful acquisition are pure 
white with exception of the small upper sepal which 
is tinted with pale green. The three-lobed lip is the 
largest and most conspicuous organ of the flower 
and serves to give character to the whole bloom. 
Aware of Merit. Exhibited by Messrs. W. L. 
Lewis & Co., Southgate. 
Odontoglossum citrosmum sulphureum, 
Nov. var. 
The sepals and petals of this variety are of a pale 
sulphur yellow, thinly spotted with purple. The 
lip on the contrary is soft mauve, and the crest 
is orange. The combination is curious, but soft in 
tone and beautiful. Award of Merit. Exhibited by 
Messrs, \V. L. Lewis & Co., Southgate. 
Cattleya Mendelii H. O. Tracey, Nov. var. 
The sepals of this Cattleya are of a soft blush, 
while the broadly ovate petals are a shade darker 
in hue. The tube and side lobes of the lip are 
white with a yellow blotch on each side of the 
throat; the lamina is of a rich, glowing purple, 
crisped and undulate. Award of Merit. Exhibited 
by Mr. H. O. Tracey, Lily and Orchid Nursery, 
Amyand Road, Twickenham. 
Cattleya granulosasuperba, Nov. var. 
The flowers of this variety are large and leathery 
in texture, with soft yellowish green sepals thinly 
spotted with purple. The petals are obovate- 
elliptic, and spotted with deep purple above the 
middle. The side lobes and tube of the lip are 
creamy white, but pale yellow internally; the 
middle lobe is reniform and white, tinted with pink, 
but deep purple on the lower half and yellow on the 
claw. Award of Merit. Exhibited by Thos. Statter, 
Esq., (gardener, Mr. R. Johnson), Stand Hall, 
Manchester. 
Dendroblum ciliatum. 
This may be considered both curious and pretty, 
but if larger would be more appreciated. The 
oblong sepals and spathulate petals are pale buff 
yellow. The lip is deep yellow an dheavily striated 
with purple or crimson on the inner face of the side 
lobes ; the lamina is very short and furnished with 
long clubbed fringes. Botanical Certificate. 
Exhibited by F. W. Moore. Esq., Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Glasnevin. 
The Ofchld Growers' Calendar. 
Cattleya House. —Cattleya speciosissima is un¬ 
doubtedly a very fine species, and when you happen 
to hit on the right treatment it is not so difficult to 
flower as many suppose. We succeed in flowering 
it annually without paying any special attention to 
it. The plants are all in baskets with but very little 
material to root into. They enjoy a light airy 
position suspended close to the glass in company 
with the white form of Laelia anceps, and it does 
not require so much water as some Cattleyas. The 
thick leathery leaves and hard pseudo-bulbs suggests 
a rather dry and high temperature in its native 
habitat, which is in nine cases out of ten a good 
guide. 
Miltonia spectabilis and its Varieties. —As 
announced in a previous communication, we have 
been growing this rather sickly-looking Orchid in 
the-cool house with the Odontoglossums, they have 
done wonderfully well and are just pushing up plenty 
of flower spikes, and although they will be some¬ 
what later in blooming than usual, they promise to 
be good.— C. 
The Amateur Orchid Grower's Guide Book. By H. A 
Burberry (Orchid Grower to the Rt Hon. j. Chamberlain 
M.P.). Containing sound, practical iniormation and advice 
for Amateurs, giving a List with Cultural Descriptions of 
those most suitable for Cool-house, Intermediate-house, and 
Warm-house Culture, together with a Calendar of Operations 
and Treatment for each Month of the Year. In Cloth (Crown 
8VO.5 by 7i),price 2S. 6 d.; post free, 2s. gd. Publisher, Garden- 
INO World, i, Clement’s Inn, Strand, London, W.C. 
fijom 
Foliage of Desert Plants. —In continuation of 
the discussion on the excellent paper contributed to 
the journal of the Linnean Society by the Rev. Geo. 
Henslow, M.A., F.L.S., and commenced in our issue 
for last week (p. 755), we propose to briefly indicate 
several other of the questions raised by him. The 
small size of the leaves of the desert plants is 
another indication of the deficiency of water. 
Plants of dry climates under cultivation, very fre¬ 
quently have small leaves, or the latter may be 
altogether wanting, or present only in a very reduced 
condition on seedling plants. Others produce very 
small leaves when growth commences in spring, but 
as the season advances, much smaller ones or none 
at all are produced. In still another case the leaves 
become inrolled at the margins so as to reduce their 
surface. All this is done with the object of lessening 
the amount of transpiration or loss of water in the 
plant. Salvia lanigera is given as an instance of the 
inrolling of the leaves. In the Delta of the Nile it 
has flat leaves 8 in. long, but when growing in the 
desert, the leaves are reduced to 2J in., and are in- 
rolled at the margins. The small size and narrow¬ 
ness of the leaves of Heaths growing at the Cape, 
owe these characters to the same causes, namely, 
the heat and deficiency of moisture for long periods 
of the year. In this latter case the leaves are per¬ 
manently small, and the writer gives good reasons 
for supposing that the physical conditions of the 
country have brought about the present results with 
regard to the size, structure, and texture of the 
leaves of Heath and other plants. Thuyas and 
Cupressus are given as instances of leaves reduced 
to scales. The nearly leafless species of Veronica in 
New Zealand occur at high elevations in arid moun¬ 
tainous regions, and further testify to the influence 
of climate. 
Succulent Plants. —Though the plants of the 
deserts near Cairo are generally hairy and spiny, 
some of them, such as the species of Zygophyllum, 
are succulent. The fleshy nature of maritime plants 
is attributed to the presence of salts ia the soil, and 
Sedums, Sempervivums and other plants of that 
class owe their succulency to the arid nature of 
their habitats. The cuticle of the leaves is thickened 
for the purpose of retaining or storing water in the 
tissues. Sedum stellatum inhabiting wet places in 
France has flat leaves but Professor Henslow found 
pecimens growing in the crevices of rocks heated 
sby the sun in Malta, with the leaves more or less 
cylindrical. The Glasswort (Salsola Kali) when 
growing on the sands of the sea shore, has fleshy 
and spiny leaves, but when it grows by the margins 
of rivers at some distance from the sea it loses its 
fleshy leaves and passes into S. Tragus. Experi¬ 
ments with plants grown in soils containing salt, 
shows that they have a tendency to become fleshy- 
like succulent plants. 
Roots. —These also undergo modification in one 
way or other to adapt them to life in the desert. 
The Colocinth, a kind of Melon, has large succulent 
leaves requiring a large supply of moisture, yet the 
plant thrives in situations fully exposed to the sun 
all the summer. Yet a shoot will wither within five 
minutes after being cut from the parent plant. To 
get the necessary supply of water the roots penetrate 
the soil to great depths. These facts also imply 
that moisture is to be found below, and it is now 
well-known that roots have a certain faculty termed 
hydrotropism, that is, the growing tips have the 
power of lengthening in the direction of the sources 
of moisture. The choking up of drain pipes by the 
roots of trees entering them, is a familiar instance 
of this. 
Duration of plants.—The bulk of desert plants 
are perennials, but some are reduced to the con¬ 
dition of annuals through lack of moisture. Others 
become perennial as in the case of certain European 
annuals which have become established there. 
Another peculiar characteristic of the effect of en¬ 
vironment upon plants is that plenty of moisture 
will enable Poa annua to become a perennial, while 
the same thing happens when it occurs upon the 
Alps, or at other high altitudes. Several American 
plants which are annuals under certain conditions, 
become perennial in other districts under different 
conditions. Sir J. Hooker observed that Stocks 
and Mignonette, which are annual in this country, 
become perennial in Tasmania, where the climate is 
conducive to continued growth. 
