620 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
May 30th, 1885. 
THE 
(Irrjnfr (drainers Crimtrar. 
Three-lipped Orchids.—I have seen various 
monstrous accidental cases of this kind. In all these 
there were no anthers developed at all, and the genuine 
free style had a terminal upright stigmatic hollow, 
without the least pronation (deflexion). The finest 
thing of this kind that ever came in my reach was 
a grand flower of Oncidium Papilio with three lips, 
three sepals, and a fusiform Apostasioid style, without 
the least indication of anthers or filaments. It was 
most kindly presented me by my excellent second 
eldest English correspondent, Mr. J. Day. I remember 
to have seen a very fine Cattleyoid flower of this kind 
(if I remember aright, Laslia elegans) in the hands of 
Mr. Thiselton Dyer. 
All these cases were accidental, and as the stamens 
were absent I adopted the view of an antagonismus 
(compensation), the column being reduced, and partly 
made normal, to pay the vast expense of the luxury 
of three lips. 
Some instances have, however, occurred to me, in 
which, together with three lips, the column was 
normal. This was observed a second time on the 
next shoots of the same plants. 
The first case was that of Oncidium prastextum 
Leeanum. The Sanderian traveller, Mr. Osmer, was 
struck by a panicle laden with such flowers, so that 
he made the laudable, but unusual, attempt to dry 
them. They are now, thanks to Mr. Sander’s liberality, 
by my side, eight in number. The plant itself is in 
the glorious collection of Mr. William Lee, where it 
produced equal flowers, eleven of which lie before me, 
thanks to the kind possessor, who will, I hope, watch 
his precious unique, telling us how long it lasts 
trilabellic. 
The second case was observed by my highly valued 
correspondent, Major Lendy, both in 1884 and 1885. 
It is not quite so evident as the just quoted Oncidium, 
inasmuch as the Phalaenopsis Stuartiana Lendyana 
has but one normal lip. Yet the petals approach 
much more lips than petals. The blunt triangular 
blades are unguiculate, and bear a callus over the mid 
base of the lamina. 
The third case is that of Dendrobium nobile Cook- 
sonianum of Mr. Norman C. Cookson. The flowers are 
very distinct from those of the D. nobile Tollianum, 
having the petals very thick and hairy over the base, 
and with the same colour as the lip .—Communicated 
by Prof. Eeichenbach to the Orchid Conference. 
Orchids at Kew.—Eeally, Mr. Eolfe, how far will 
you go with your abortive attempts to impeach my 
statements ? In your “ unofficial ” zeal you have been 
carried too far, and have unwittingly corroborated 
every line I penned. I sent a tnie statement to the 
Editor. This you took upon yourself to challenge, 
in a tone which I called angry, because a man who 
tells another that he does not adhere to facts, other¬ 
wise does not tell the truth, must be angry, or he 
would not forget himself so far. Walking in Kew 
Gardens, and inquiring for the Orchid-hous.e, I w T as 
directed to No. 12. I entered house No. 12, and stated 
what I saw. The house being T-shaped, every branch 
of the T may go by different numbers ; this I knew 
not, but I certainly did not go out of the building into 
the open air. I enumerated fifty-nine plants, not sixty- 
one as Mr. Eolfe will have it. Who tried to mislead but 
Mr. Eolfe, who gave a longer list by thirty-seven, and 
now admits that his visit being a fortnight later than 
mine, additional plants may have come into bloom? 
“ May ” is not the right word ; “ did ” is the truth. 
More fair than he is, I accepted his statement 
that Kew possesses upwards of 1,000 species, but I 
did not see them ; and as Mr. Eolfe volunteered the 
information that there are three other houses devoted 
to Orchids, and not open to the public, I naturally 
presumed that these remarkable species were kept 
there. 
These houses I called the “ sanctum,” a word which 
Mr. Eolfe apparently does not understand. Let me tell 
him that it is a Latin word which briefly means “ the 
part of a building which the public cannot enter, being 
reserved for the privileged few.” However, in his 
last letter, Mr. Eolfe tells us that he has nothing to do 
with the Orchids. Why, then, does he write about 
them? I maintain every word I have uttered con¬ 
cerning my visit on the 19th of April. If the plain 
truth and my remarks have annoyed Mr. Eolfe I am 
very sorry, but I do not see why I should join in the 
chorus of praise bestowed on the Kew Orchids, to please 
anyone. If Mr. Eolfe will hire a trombone and a big 
drum, and collect a crowd on Kew Green and cry out, 
“ Hurrah for the Kew Orchids 1 Hurrah for our grand 
specimens, our rare species, and our great numbers! 
Come and seel We beat Yeitch, Bull, Sander, Low, 
nay, Baron Schroder, Sir Trevor Lawrence, &c. 1 ” 
by all means let him do so and be happy; but let him 
beware of picking a quarrel with a man in the crowd 
who disagrees with his bombast and cries “ rubbish ” : 
there are policemen on the Green— A. F. L .— [Mr. 
Eolfe has in no way disproved the statements of 
A. F. L., and we think enough has been said on both 
sides. It would serve no useful purpose to continue 
the discussion.— Ed.] 
FLEXIBLE WIRE TRELLIS 
WORK. 
Amongst the “ Garden Sundries ” exhibited at the 
great Whitsuntide Horticultural Exhibition just 
closed at Manchester, we noticed some wire netting 
and trellis work, so novel in construction, and so good 
an article to boot, that we think many of our readers 
FLEXIBLE WIRE NETTING. 
who have had unpleasant experience of the “kinking,” 
“ sagging,” and general liability to get out of order 
of ordinary wire netting, may be glad to know of it. 
This is the patent, diamond-shaped, interlinked wire 
trellis and net-work, for which the manufacturers 
claim the following special advantages :—“ It is so 
interlinked together that it ensures perfect flexibility, 
and can be rolled or compressed into a smaller space 
than any other netting or trellis manufactured. That 
when stretched it becomes perfectly rigid and will 
bear an immense strain, its uniform mesh presenting 
a fine appearance to the ordinary wire netting in use. 
It is easily fixed, and from its diagonal construction 
requires few supports, and can easily be removed if 
desired; can be divided into short lengths or joined 
together, without blemish or inconvenience, thus 
ensuring a saving of labour and material. It can 
be made of any mesh, of almost any thickness of 
wire, and up to any width.” To better explain the 
method of interlinking the wire we annex an engraving, 
which shows at a glance the simplicity of the manu¬ 
facture. There is not a use in the garden to which 
wire netting can be put, from an ordinary bordering 
or low fence to a croquet lawn, to the comfortable 
seat of a garden chair, that the new style of netting 
cannot be applied, with a certainty, as it seems to us, 
of superseding the old. The flexible interlinked 
netting is a thoroughly good article, and, as such, is 
deserving of wide publicity. The manufacturers are 
Messrs. James E. Collier & Co., 27, Bradshaw Street, 
Shude Hill, Manchester. 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
Manchester Botanical and Horticultural, 
J lay 22 nd to 28th .—The great annual National Horti¬ 
cultural Exhibition, which was opened on Friday 
week, though held a fortnight earlier than last year, 
and containing no special feature of a surpassing 
order of merit, was quite up to the average—an 
unquestionably good show. The weather on the first 
two days was of a most unfavourable character, so 
that it is not surprising that so few persons, com¬ 
paratively speaking, paid a visit to the show and the 
gardens, which, under the able management of Mr. 
Bruce Findlay, were in admirable order. 
The exhibition, as usual, was held in the commo¬ 
dious new show house (erected a year or two ago by 
Messrs. E. Halliday & Co., of Middleton), the large 
canvas-covered annexe, and a supplementary tent. 
In the show house proper, a long table down the 
centre contained a choice assortment of small plants, 
while the two sides and end were admirably filled 
with stove and greenhouse flowering and fine-foliaged 
plants, gigantic Gleichenias, and Orchids, Ac. Orchids 
at Manchester take the lead in the schedule, and, 
indeed, at the show, for without the monster speci¬ 
mens—some genuine single plants, others made up, 
and clumsily too—the show would lose much of the 
keen local interest that is now centred in it. 
In the absence of Mr. B, P. Percival’s plants, a new 
exhibitor came to the front and held his own in five 
out of the six classes open to amateurs. This was A. 
Heine, Esq., of Fallowfield, who is to be congratulated 
ou Inis well-earned success. The winner of the first 
prize for six was the veteran Dr. Ainsworth, and the 
next most successful exhibitor was J. Broome, Esq., 
Wood Lawn, Didsbury, who, in one of his collections, 
had the finest specimen Orchid in the show, his now 
well-known Vanda teres, 3 ft. high, 2 ft. through, and 
superbly bloomed by his gardener, Mr. A. Cole. In 
the two nurserymen’s classes, Mr. Cypher, of Chelten¬ 
ham, well won both the first prizes, Mr. James, of 
Lower Norwood, being a good second. 
Besides these competitive collections, the Orchid 
contingent was greatly strengthened by large collec¬ 
tions from Messrs. F. Sander & Co., St. Albans, and 
Messrs. Fisher, Son & Sibray, Handsworth, Sheffield, 
the former of whom had a specially fine variety of 
Cattleya Mendeli, and the latter one of the finest 
varieties of Phalamopsis amabilis we have ever seen, 
a spike of ten magnificently proportioned flowers, the 
merits of which the judges recognized by awarding a 
First-Class Certificate. 
Fine-foliaged plants were well represented by large, 
handsome specimens, and plenty of them, especially 
in the amateurs’ class, in which the first prize went 
to John Bylands, Esq., Longford Hall, Manchester, 
and the second to Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bart., M.P. 
Mr. Cypher, Mr. James, and Mr. Judgey, secured the 
prizes offered to trade growers. For eight stove and 
greenhouse plants in flower, Mr. S. Schloss, of 
Bowden, secured the highest honours among 
amateurs, and Mr. Cypher again took the lead with 
ten plants open to nurserymen. Next to these, 
perhaps the most striking groups in the show 
house were one of eight exotic Ferns from Mr. S. 
Schloss, nearly all Gleichenias, of enormous size, 
well matched, and in perfect health, and a collection 
of ten Crotons from Messrs. E. P. Ker & Sons, of 
Liverpool, good large, evenly-matched plants, which, 
as regards the size of their leaves, and their colour, 
were the finest that have come under our notice. A 
plant of C. Hawkeri was specially noticeable for 
its grand condition. The Messrs. Ker, with whom 
highly-coloured Crotons are a speciality, were also 
invincible with a dozen Dracaenas, then nearest rival 
being Mr. James ; while among amateurs, Mr. Broome 
had the finest examples of the latter and Sir Wilfrid 
Lawson of the former. With Azaleas and Heaths 
Mr. Broome was also successful, and he contributed as 
well the best collection of Pitcher plants, an unique 
lot for quality, and including certainly the plant of 
the show, the largest specimen probably in England 
of Nepenthes Mastersiana, with the largest and 
deepest coloured pitchers that have yet been seen. 
On the central table Mr. B. S. Williams, of Hollo¬ 
way, who has been a staunch supporter of these shows 
since they were established eighteen years ago, had 
