428 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
March ?th, 1883. 
THE 
dhxjntr (Srofaera Citlcnbitr. 
The Work of the Month. —The present month 
will be found one of the best in the whole year for 
repotting anyof those plants which by their growth 
indicate that they are in a proper condition to shift, 
and which have not been directed to be repotted 
before. As a rule, and a good one too, it may be 
said that when new roots are pushing from new 
growth, it is a good time to repot most Orchids, 
provided they require it, but care should be taken that 
in no case is a plant shifted unless it does require it 
Some growers have almost a mania for potting, and 
their plants never establish themselves and flower so 
well as they do with those who leave them until there 
is good reason for disturbing them. 
Cattleyas and Lselias are particularly impatient of 
being unnecessarily disturbed. At the same time it is 
not easy to overrate the health-giving properties of a 
bit of fresh stuff supplied to shaky or unhealthy 
plants, and it cannot be supplied to them too often 
even should it be several times a year, until they are 
firmly rooted and established. 
One of the most important matters, from henceforth, 
will be to carefully keep in check the heating apparatus 
in mild or tolerable weather, as nothing works greater 
mischief on the health of the plants, or is so favour¬ 
able to the spread of insect pests, than keeping the 
heating apparatus going at winter rate whilst the 
temperature outside is mild. It is a good plan at this 
season and onwards, morning and noon, to damp the 
walls and under the stages in each of the houses, but 
this should be done without raising a steam from the 
hot-water pipes. Nothing acts so well as a check 
against undue artificial heat being unwittingly given 
than keeping a thermometer in each house with a 
label attached to it marked with the temperature at 
which it should be kept. Many of the Phalaenopsis 
will now be starting into growth, and will require to 
be kept in the warmest and shadiest part of the warm- 
house (see p. 245). 
The Temperatures For, the month of March should 
be :— 
Warm-house, East Indian, 65 degs. to 70 degs. by 
day, 60 degs. at night. 
Cattleta or Intermediate-house, 60 degs. to 
65 degs. by day, 55 degs. at night. 
Cool or Odontoglossum-house, 55 degs. to 60 degs. 
by day, 50 degs. at night. 
These temperatures should be aimed at by the 
adjustment of the fires and the ventilators, but should 
5 degs. or so more be registered by reason of sun-heat 
it is of no consequence so long as proper moisture and 
ventilation is kept up. It is fire-heat that is to be 
dreaded when employed in excess.— James O'Brien. 
Booking 1 Place, Braintree. — Every year does 
the neat little collection of Orchids belonging to 
Sydney Courtauld, Esq., show marked improvement 
on the preceding, and as one after the other the 
stubborn subjects have been conquered, so has the 
whole become more uniformly good. At the present 
time the occupants of the neat and roomy new houses 
seem all to have settled down to enjoy a good steady 
run of prosperity, a few of the specimens being 
almost matchless. In particular, we noted a high 
plant of Dendrobium Faleonerii, growing over a large 
stump placed in a pot, which is a marvel of thriving 
luxuriance and far superior to any of the species we 
have ever seen. It stands in a sheltered corner of 
an intermediate house, where it will form a splendid 
object when in bloom. 
In the Cattleya-house there is a good show of C. 
Trianse in all shades, several of them being of more 
than average merit, whilst two grand specimens in 
full bloom are each in its way beyond anything in 
their class. The one bears eleven large flowers of 
perfect form, the sepals and petals being bright rosy 
lilac, and the labellum of the richest maroon, with a 
bright mauve glow over it; it is of the C. T. Normanii 
section, but far superior to that variety. The other 
specimen bears twenty-five blooms of great size and 
substance, their general appearance being more that 
of a good C. Mossiae than a Trianse, the expansion of 
the lip and its frilled margin being very distinct. 
Both these prizes and other good things came out of a 
lucky purchase made at Messrs. Jas. Veitch & Sons, 
in 1883, of which importation all who purchased 
are only sorry they did not get more. Cattleya 
amethystoglossa is also finely in bloom. 
In the cool intermediate house a great display is 
made with specimens of Coelogyne cristata, three or 
four feet across in bloom, and smaller plants of the 
Lemoniana and Chatswortli varieties, arranged with 
well-flowered masses of the scarlet Sophronitis 
grandiflora, good pans of Odontoglossum Bossii 
majus and O. Cervantesii, anl many fine Lycaste 
Skinnerii, good specimens of Laelia anceps, Dendro¬ 
bium, Jamesianum, D. Ainsworthii, D. Kingianum, 
Cypripediums, Oncidiums, Odontoglossum pulchellum 
(one of them being a grand form), Restrepias and the 
showy old Dendrobium speciosum. In this house, 
grown in shallow pans and suspended near the glass 
of the roof where they are kept moist, the pretty 
little Odontoglossum Oerstedii, which puzzles so many 
to keep healthy, is growing and flowering remarkably 
well. The cool-houses are in fine order, but not 
showing with blooms yet of course, although the 
bristling flower spikes tell of the good time coming. 
The true Odontoglossum Chestertoni, as shown by 
Baron Schroder at the last Royal Horticultural 
Society’s meeting, and lovely forms of O. Ander- 
sonianum lobatum and O. A. obtusatum, as well as 
other interesting things are in flower among the 
hybrids. 
In the other houses in bloom are some fine speci¬ 
mens of Cymbidium eburneum (one with twelve 
spikes), C. Lowianum, Yanda Cathcartii, iErides 
Leeanum and many fine specimens of Cypripedium, 
as well as a most extraordinary new species of 
Catasetum with long spikes of claret-coloured insect¬ 
like flowers, and the now conquered Phahenopsis 
which used to be troublesome here, are giving in 
their house a good show of P. Schilleriana and P. 
grandiflora. The Masdevallia - house, too, which 
contains a very fine collection, will be a pleasant 
sight to behold in the flowering season. 
Many other good plants beside Orchids are well- 
grown at Booking Place, and all who are interested 
in the now numerous species of Nepenthes, would be 
delighted with the collection of Pitcher plants there, 
as all the kinds are grown well. The end of the 
summer, however, is a better time to see them than 
now. 
— cr 7 ^ ■ * '~~a — 
ORCHID NOTES. 
Lselia harpophylla. —Who could fail to admire 
this striking Orchid when in flower and in good health ? 
On the other hand, when sickly or badly grown, as 
is more often the case, who would not think the 
rubbish-heap the most suitable place for it ? In the 
autumn of 1881 a dozen newly-imported plants of 
medium size were placed under my care, and not one 
failed to grow. Most of them are now good, strong, 
healthy plants, some in bloom, and others showing 
their flower-buds; the strongest bulbs are producing six 
to nine flowers upon a spike, and, as is the case with 
most Orchids, the colour varies, some flowers being of 
a dull red, others a bright orange-scarlet; the largest 
flowers measure 3 ins. across. Last year these plants 
flowered equally well, and I do not see any reason 
why they should not continue to do so annually if 
properly treated. 
This Laelia likes more water, more shade, and less 
air than any other. I grow them in an intermediate 
house, hip-roofed, and facing south, and these plants 
stand in a snug corner on the north side, a spot 
I selected for them on their arrival, and one that I 
should be sorry to remove them from. I may mention, 
for the benefit of those who do not succeed very well 
with this Orchid, that some of its companions in the 
same corner are Dendrobium Jamesianum, various 
varieties of Chysis, Arundina bambusaefolia, with 
growths about 4 ft. high, and Houlletia Brockle- 
hurstiana and H. chrysantha. 
At the time Laelia harpophylla was imported, we 
were told that in Brazil they made twelve or more 
flowers upon a spike ! It would be interesting to know 
whether possessors of the largest plants in this 
country have been rewarded with a like number of 
flowers upon a spike.— T. Simcoe, The Gardens, Lake 
House, Cheltenham. 
Cirrhopetalum picturatum. —A pretty Orchid 
is figured in the January number of The Botanical 
Magazine under this name, which was collected in 
Burma, by Richard Curnow, a collector for Messrs. 
Low & Son, of Clapton. The pseudo-bulbs are tufted; 
the leaves linear-oblong and dark green; the scape 
8 ins. to 10 ins. high, and bearing a ten-flowered 
umbel of 5 ins. diameter. The flowers are 2 ins. long, 
the lateral sepals pale green, the upper sepal similarly 
coloured, but with blood-red spots and a purple 
appendage; the petals pale green with blood-red 
spots and the lip blood-red. The original species was 
cultivated some forty-five years ago by the Messrs. 
Loddiges, and the present is referred to it with some 
hesitation, on account of its larger size and other 
divergencies. 
Propagation of Phalaenopsis by the roots.— 
In answer to Mr. Philbrick’s note in your last issue, in 
reference to the propagation of Phalaenopsis by the 
roots, I now give you the details regarding the plant 
I mentioned in The Garden of December 13th, 1884. 
My plant is a small P. Stuartiana, in fair vigour, and 
grown in a teak basket. It flowered in March last year, 
and has now a nice branched spike with eighteen 
flowers. It started into growth in May last, at the 
same time, two of the old overhanging roots threw out 
very minute points on both sides of the roots, they 
were too small for root branches, and consequently 
I watched them closely. In a month’s time 
they developed into leaves, and now some of the 
young plants are attached by their own roots to the 
spars. 
In November last, I traced one of these old roots that 
had two young rootless plants on it, up to the parent 
plant, and found the portion of the root that was 
buried in the growing sphagnum was entirely decayed, 
and had evidently been so for some time. I then laid 
this root on the top of the basket, and on examining 
it to-day, I found one of the young plants has a root 
fully J-in. long, and the other one just starting to root. 
The other old root with four plants on it is quite fixed 
to the spars, and I find it has again thrown out two 
more young points, that I am sure will develop into 
plants. 
As Sir Trevor Lawrence has never seen such an 
instance, I shall be much pleased to send him the 
detached root with the two plants. It will be 
interesting to see what they will come to, and I am 
sure they will get more justice in his hands than in 
mine. I may also mention that I have a Cypripedium 
concolor with a nice young plant growing from a root 
that happened to grow out of the sphagnum. It is 
quite 4 ins. from any portion of the rhizome. 
With this post I send you a flower of what I think is 
an extra rich coloured form of Phalaenopsis Ludde- 
maniana.— W. Macdonald, Woodlands House, Perth. 
[It is an extraordinary fine variety ; certainly the best 
we have ever seen.-^-L’d.] 
Propagating Orchids by the Boots. — In 
reference to the root propagation of Phahenopsis 
mentioned in your paper of February 14th, I should 
like to know if it is usual for other species of Orchids 
to do the same, as I have a plant of Masdevallia 
Schlimii with two small plants on one of the old 
roots.— T. H. 
— a— - jS- O- Zr, —o — 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
Scottish Horticultural Association.- -The 
annual general meeting of this Association was held 
at 5, St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh, oil Tuesday 
night, Mr. Alexander Mackenzie presiding. The 
following office-bearers were elected :—Honorary 
president, Professor Dickson; president, Mr. Wm. 
Thomson, Clovenfords; vice-presidents (in room of 
those who retired by rotation), Mr. John Methven, 
Edinburgh, and Mr. Robert Lindsay, curator, Royal 
Botanic Gardens ; secretary, Mr. Robertson Munro, 
Abercorn Nursery, Piershill ; and treasurer, Mr. 
Alexander Mackenzie, Warriston Nurseries, Edin¬ 
burgh. 
Five councillors were elected in the place of 
those who retired by rotation. The annual report 
of the council stated that the objects of the Association 
