716 THE GARDENING WORLD 
THE 
®ix{nfr (&wkm (Mmirar. 
Odontogiossums at St. Albans.—Many hun¬ 
dreds of these are now in bloom in the immense 
collection of them at Messrs. F. Sander & Co.’s at St. 
Albans, where the massive and handsomely-blotched, 
tinged, and spotted forms of 0. Alexandras are wonder¬ 
ful in the extreme. Their strain is superb in the form, 
size, and substance of their flowers, and endless in 
their variation; some of the 0. crispums running 
into luteo-purpureum, some into gloriosum, and some 
approaching triumphans, while many exhibit pecu¬ 
liarities of marking to which it is difficult to assign a 
parentage. The heavily-blotched 0. c. Johnsoni and 
O. c. Sanderiana are certainly two of the very best. 
O. elegans, 0. velleum, O. polyxanthum, and many 
handsome forms of O. Pescatorei, are also in bloom. 
Mr. Sander certainly grows his Odontoglossums to 
perfection, for out of the several large houses of 
them (each from 200 ft. to 250 ft. long) not a 
single unhealthy or dirty plant is to be seen. The 
plants are grown very cold, moist, airy, and tolerably 
shady. 
Cattleya Lawrenceana.—There is no doubt 
that this grand' new plant is a valuable addition to 
our Orchid-houses, and by what can be seen of it up 
to the present time it is likely to be a very free grower 
and bloomer. I have seen a great many in different 
collections, and I have reason to believe that those 
which have been kept tolerably cool and moist from 
the first have done best. Everywhere the specimens 
seem pushing into growth, and let their previous 
treatment have been whatever it might, there is no 
doubt that from henceforth they -will do best in light 
situations near the glass in the intermediate-house, 
and with a liberal [supply of rain-water. Cattleya 
Lawrenceana seems particularly adapted for basket- 
culture, and wherever it is doing badly in pots it should 
at once be basketed and kept moist. It is a very 
distinct and handsome plant, and when it flowers 
there will be t a (greater run upon it than there is 
now .—James O'Brien. 
New Orchids. — Thuxia Yeitchiaxa, a fresh 
“ English Orchid,” of much elegance, lending the 
charms of both its cross parents, Thunia Marshal- 
liana, Echb. f., and T. Bensonas, Hook, f., and stand¬ 
ing quite between both. The flower is not so broad 
nor so short as in the first-named, nor so long as 
in Sir Joseph Hooker’s plant. The spur is rather 
that of the first. The white sepals and petals have 
a very light mauve wash at their tops, which looks 
remarkably elegant—at least “ t. m. t.” The lips’ 
median keels are broken up in the anterior disc into 
numerous fringed processes of a certain colour be¬ 
tween orange and mauve-purple. The whole anterior 
broad border of the lip is of the finest mauve-purple, 
and the superior part of the lip is white, with 
some mauve-purple veins. There are some very 
small mauve spots on the top of the column. The 
plant is a fresh proof of Mr. Seden’s perseverance, 
zeal, and skill, and it is destined at once to be, in 
its chaste elegance, one of those numerous memo¬ 
rials both science and horticulture will ever keep 
in honour of that illustrious Veitchian firm.— 
Epidendruai polyaxthum asperum.- —Messrs. J. Yeitch 
& Sons have kindly forwarded me a plant I had known 
before in English gardens, as I had had it from the 
late Mr. Wilson Saunders. It would be fully the 
well-known Epidendrum polyanthum, Lindl., were it 
not that the ovaries, and even the rhachis, are covered 
with numerous dense small warts. I remember well 
I saw such a case before, forty years ago, in an 
Epidendrum patens. It is a very interesting fact, 
that I have specimens of Epidendrum polyanthum, 
doubtless coming from the same source, some with 
even and some with rough ovaries. My specimens of 
Galeotti, 5,125, purchased in 1847, have smooth 
ovaries, while the same number of Galeotti’s private 
herbarium, purchased in 1856, had them with warts. 
— H. G. lleichenbach in The Gardeners’ Chronicle. 
FLORICULTURE IN INDIA. 
Bose Edouard.— Soon after joining my appointment 
in Northern India, in October 1864, my predecessor 
in honorary charge pointed out this Eose, of which 
there were several plants in various parts of the 
garden, and inquired if I knew its name, stating that 
it was known only as the Bombay Eose in that part 
of India ; and asked also if I could explain the cause 
of its flower-buds dropping off without opening. My 
reply was that I recognized it as the Eose “ Edouard,” 
and the dropping its buds to be characteristic of it in 
England. The cause generally assigned was the 
climate being too cold and the soE too wet for it 
there ; but this, I remarked, could not be the reason 
here, and that I was now inclined to believe that it 
was owing to the plant being too free in growth, that 
is by producing more flower-buds than it could carry 
out or bring to perfection, a freak of nature not 
altogether unusual in other instances, and amongst 
fruits especially. He expressed his pleasure in 
hearing its proper name, and requested me to take 
some of the plants in hand and see if I could 
ascertain the cause and rectify it. I did so as 
follows. 
Some of the healthiest and best plants were taken 
up, divided (for there were several stems or ground 
shoots to each plant forming a clump), and pruned; 
all suckers and growing buds below the surface of the 
ground were cut out, so that no more suckers could 
form, also the buds above the ground for 3 ins. or 
4 ins. up the stem were removed, to secure clean 
single-stemmed plants, by which the plants should 
be handled when potting operations are being per¬ 
formed. It also becomes the only medium or passage 
for the ascending sap or life blood of the plant, from 
the roots to the head, and thus secures an equality of 
distribution to all the branches and parts alike, and 
that uniformity of growth and flowering so essential, 
so that a plant of any kind may be induced to give 
its flush of bloom or crop uniformly and simulta¬ 
neously. 
If a plant is allowed to have more stems than 
one, or a multiplicity of suckers be allowed to 
predominate, they soon throw out and make roots 
and set up on their own account, and not being 
detached will rob rather than assist the parent plant, 
for the roots of suckers do not contribute thereto, 
but, on the contrary, detract therefrom, and primarily 
each supplies itself, hence the wretched condition 
the plant is soon reduced to, when unassisted by art. 
Moreover suckers beget suckers rapidly, and flowers 
as rapidly deteriorate and fall away to semi-double, 
then single, and ultimately into the natural wild 
condition, from which by cultivation and art it had 
taken generations to bring them to the perfection 
of a fine double Eose, and the climate has to bear the 
blame. Gardeners term these suckers “robbers.” 
The plants thus reduced were potted into the 
smallest size pots appropriate for the quantity of 
roots to each plant, then plunged rim deep in a bed 
prepared for them, w-atered moderately as required, 
shaded daily with canvas from eight in the morning, and 
syringed or sprinkled freely with water every evening. 
When the pots were filled with newly-formed roots, 
and the plants had broken into new growth, they were 
shifted (repotted) into a size larger pots, the number 
of shoots reduced by disbudding or thinning (as 
gardeners term it) to a given number of branches 
decided upon to form the future plant, and con¬ 
sistently with the quantity of flowers the plants 
individually were deemed of strength to bear. All 
were returned to their bed, replunged at greater dis¬ 
tances apart than previously, and treated as before, 
until, as usual, a multiplicity of blooming buds 
appeared upon each and every branch ; these were 
reduced by the aid of the Grape-thinning scissors 
to three or four of the finest on each shoot, and neat 
stakes and ties were now used in the adjust¬ 
ment and regulation of the branches symmetri¬ 
cally. When the buds began to expand into 
bloom, the sprinkling of water overhead was dis¬ 
continued, as it injures the blossoms to some extent, 
but was somewhat copiously applied to the whole 
surface of the ground to insure the beneficial effects of 
evaporation in conjunction with the requirements of 
the roots. 
A fine display of flowers was the result, each full 
and perfect in form and well developed. They became 
July 11th, 1885. 
the admiration of all who saw them, and attracted 
attention from far and near. As soon as this flush 
was over, the old flower spikes were cut back to the 
first perfect leaf with growing bud at its base. This 
second pruning or shortening, which gardeners term 
trimming, is by some mistaken for a general pruning, 
and called summer-pruning. 
A second growth soon appeared (to me it seemed 
somewhat rapidly, for I was not then so well versed 
or initiated in the excitable nature of this climate on 
the growth of plants generally in comparison with that 
of the British Isles as I have since become). A 
second flush of bloom also followed, the flower-buds 
were thi nn ed, and the treatment was the same as 
before, except in the supply of liquid manure, 
which was increased in strength and number of 
applications. I may here state that liquid manure 
is applied, as a rule, after the flower-buds appear 
and have been t hin ned, the blooming principle is 
benefited thereby, and larger flowers are developed. 
This flush, though not equal in size of flowers to the 
former, was very creditable, indeed highly satisfactory 
to the many ad mi rers who had watched what was to 
them an experiment, but to me a routine practised 
for many years at home in preparing -Eose plants 
for forcing, and early and late blooming in pots. To 
me the difference lay in the short space of time in 
which this growth and development occurred, and 
the mass of flower-buds that were produced upon 
each shoot. 
I was well acquainted with the system adopted by 
our Rose-cultivators at home for competition at the 
flower shows, of k thinning or discarding the super¬ 
numerary buds, and reducing the number to three 
upon each shoot, and the use of manure water at this 
particular stage to assist and enhance the size of the 
flowers in development; I therefore only applied my 
former knowledge, as mentioned above. When the 
plants, and their roots especially, are in a good 
healthy growing condition, which can at all times be 
ascertained by turning a few of them out of the pots 
for examination, and carefully replacing, without 
disturbing the roots, they are found satisfactory, and 
the growth made is stout, firm in the wood, and short 
jointed, let well alone and reserve the stimulant for 
the benefit of the flowers or fruit, as the case may be. 
In other respects it is used to recoup exhaustion, and 
as the plants advance in age, it may be increased 
with effect; nor is it well to be covetous in the 
way of quantity when quality in flowers is the 
desideratum. 
TV e have now arrived at the third stage, or rather 
our pet has entered upon presenting us with a third 
display of bloom. This was watched somewhat keenly, 
and our misgivings were realized; the result was 
exhaustion, which showed itself but too plainly in 
the weakened state of growth and deterioration of 
the flower-buds, some of which turned yellow and 
dropped oil; the others were discarded, and water was 
then gradually withheld until the wood showed signs 
of ripening and the plants of going to rest. Either 
the climate was too exciting or the plants had been 
too good-natured and free, the treatment too liberal, 
the season over, as it was then late, or perhaps all 
combined to cause the failure of the third crop of 
flowers. 
The whole were in due time removed to an open, 
somewhat any, cool building, out of the sunshine 
which had been selected as quarters of rest. Water 
was almost wholly withheld, sufficient only being 
given to maintain life by keeping the wood from 
shrivelling; the leaves turned yellow and fell off. 
This last is a sure and satisfactory sign of the plants 
being at rest. 
I will here mention that plants in a tropical climate 
can obtain rest by withholding water only. A dark, 
dry, airy building or shed where the sun's rays cannot 
penetrate will assist. We must follow nature. In 
temperate climates cold, frost, and snow will give 
vegetation rest. In the tropics excessive drought, 
with an arid atmosphere, has a similar effect, which 
may be seen when the deciduous trees are leafless and 
the natural indigenous grasses and herbs apparently 
burnt up; still there is life enough in them when the 
rains come, which is ample proof of their having been 
in a state of rest only. 
During this state of dormancy the plants were 
pruned and re-potted. This pruning is the general 
annual pruning, which I will now describe. The 
