December 3, 1892. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
213 
PALMS AT UPPER 
HOLLOWAY. 
For decorative purposes in various ways, Palms 
come in useful at all times of the year, but more 
especially so in winter. The leathery character of 
the leaves is well adapted for resisting the dry 
atmosphere of rooms, and provided they do not 
require a very high temperature, they can be kept 
for a considerable length of time in such places 
without material injury where only a moderate 
amount of gas is kept burning. 
There are several houses through which Palms are 
distributed in the nursery of Messrs. B. S. Williams 
& Son, Upper Holloway, but the bulk of the most 
useful kinds for general decorative purposes are kept 
in a large house near the main entrance and close by 
the office. Here a great number of Palms are stored 
away at all times of the year ready for use. Being 
a high roofed structure all the tall ones are ac¬ 
commodated in it, arranged along the back with 
the smaller ones in front, so that the whole forms 
a regularly sloping bank of elegant and graceful 
foliage. The larger plants in this and similar col¬ 
lections consist of Latanias, Kentias, Seaforthias, 
Phoenix, and similar things of that nature. 
Some of the tallest and 
most useful plants consist 
of KentiaForsteriana.with 
tall upright petioles and 
graceful, pinnate leaves. 
Compared with the size 
and height of the plants, 
they occupy a relatively 
small amount of space,and 
are therefore more easily 
accommodated thanplants 
of the same size and age 
of K. Belmoreana. In the 
young state the latter is 
fairly useful and graceful 
for table decoration, but 
when they get large, a few 
plants with their long 
spreading leaves would re¬ 
quire a house to them¬ 
selves. For the centre of 
circular groups in the mid¬ 
dle of a room they might 
prove serviceable, where 
the ceiling is low, but they 
would be relatively in¬ 
effective in large rooms 
with plenty of head-room. 
Here the upright leaves 
of Iventia Forsteriana.like 
those of Cocos plumosa, 
take the palm for stately 
elegance Then again the 
leaves prove very accom¬ 
modating when they come 
to be tied up for packing or 
removal from place to 
place. Theyare pliable and 
do not readily snap in the 
process of tying up like 
those of Seaforthia elegans, which used to be such a 
favourite on account of its umbrella-like head of 
foliage. 
There are several other garden varieties of Areca, 
such as A. australis and A. Mooreana, presenting 
minor differences. That known as A. lutescens is 
always acceptable in collections on account of its 
graceful habit and slender, wiry, yellow petioles. A. 
Canterburyana is to be compared with A. Forsteri- 
ana only after it attains a considerable size, for then 
it becomes more elegant than in the early stages. 
When young it bears but a few leaves, with broad 
and not very graceful pinnae. The species of 
Rhaphis, including R. flabelliformis and R. humilis, 
are very useful for decorative purposes, but especially 
the latter. Every part is slender and attractive. 
Numerous small plants of it in this house would 
suggest the fitness of this species for associating 
with such plants as Aralia gracillima, Crotons, 
Dracaenas, and other plants used for table decora¬ 
tion. 
In another house we noted a batch of Livistona 
rotundifolia with perfectly circular and fingered, 
fan-shaped leaves. The plants stand about g in. 
high, twice as far through, and carry about a dozen 
Jeaves. The leaves are of a light shining green. 
The plants are in 32-size pots, but have quite re¬ 
cently been potted on from a smaller size. Cocos 
Weddeliana may be seen in various sizes, including 
a large batch of quite miniature, but elegant seed¬ 
lings. The leaves are said to stand the dry atmos¬ 
phere of a room much better than those of Geonoma 
gracilis, another Palm of very similar habit. A 
graceful plant, something in the way of some of the 
Kentias, is Ravenea Hildebrandtii, a species coming 
from the Comoro Islands. The nearly upright 
petioles are almost cylindrical, bearing a linear, 
lanceolate, arching, pinnate lamina, the pinnae being 
drooping and linear. A very different-looking Palm 
is Nephrosperma Van Houtteanum, better known as 
Oncosperma Van Houtteanum, and sometimes as 
Areca nobilis. The arching leaves are 2 ft. to ft. 
long, pinnate and arching, with long, drooping, linear- 
lanceolate pinnae. The petioles are furnished with 
numerous long spines, like those of Acanthophcenix. 
It is a native of the Seychelles, and was introduced 
in 1868. Another beautiful Palm with pinnate 
leaves is Elaeis melanocca, which was recently 
certificated. 
The snowy-leaved Wax Palm (Ceroxylon niveum) 
is a bold and telling subject of quite a different 
appearance from any of the foregoing, and takes rank 
amongst the broad-leaved Palms that show off their 
massive grandeur best by contrast with the slender 
and graceful leaved kinds. In the young state, say, 
when the leaves are about 2 ft. long or more, they 
are elliptic and interrupted here and there along the 
margins with broad, truncate and dentate teeth, indi¬ 
cating future division. They are leathery or rigid in 
texture, deep green above and of a silvery white 
beneath, owing to a dense coating of scurfy matter. 
Another by no means common Palm with massive 
leaves, is Verschaffeltia splendida. The oblong 
leaves are bifid at the apex and more or less of a red 
tint, while the petioles are furnished with bristly and 
sharp spines as in the case of Oncosperma. Many 
others might be mentioned, but the above will give 
an idea of the general collection, and also of the 
great variety of kinds that may be seen in the 
nursery. 
-- 
ODONTOGLOSSUM 
GRANDE. 
This splendid Odontoglot, the largest and finest of 
the genus, has been so often imported during the 
past 50 years, and is so plentiful that it has come to 
be regarded as a common Orchid, and is not nearly 
so much esteemed as its merits deserve. It was dis¬ 
covered by the late Mr. G. Ure Skinner, in 1839, 
near Guatemala, and it flowered for the first time in 
this country in 1841, at Woburn Abbey, Beds. It is 
an amateurs orchid par excellence, and being of easy 
growth and flowering through the winter months, 
every lover who can command an average amount of 
heat should certainly have it in his collection. It 
is a special favourite with Mr. David Lord, of 
Stackstead, near Manchester, who is very successful 
in its cultivation, as the accompanying illustration of 
one of his plants will show. 
-- 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS AT CHILWELL. 
Situated about three miles from the town of 
Nottingham and near to Beeston Station are the 
nurseries of Messrs. J. R. Pearson & Sons, where for 
about four weeks at this season of the year is to be 
seen such a splendid lot of Chrysanthemums in flower 
as cannot fail to be fully appreciated by the hundreds 
of growers who journey there from far and near. 
This year the show is indeed a grand sight, the 
plants well clothed with foliage and bearing flowers 
of extraordinary size. The firm is well to the front 
with new varieties, and amongst the many worthy 
of note may be mentioned 
J C.Schwabe, grand, John 
Farwell, very large, Mer¬ 
maid, blush, very fine,Ed¬ 
win Lonsdale, deep pur¬ 
ple, Wm. Tricker, pink, 
incurved Japanese, Dida, 
primrose, splendid, Vice 
PresidentDarquier.Gloire 
de Rocher, Emily Doone, 
Puritan, Florence Davis, 
Viviand Morel, Louis 
Boehmer, W. W. Coles, 
Avalanche, Stanstead 
White,and ColonelSmith, 
all of which were carry¬ 
ing dooms of splendid 
size in the Japanese sec¬ 
tion ; and many scores of 
perfect blooms of all the 
best varieties in the in¬ 
curved section testified to 
the skill and energy with 
which the firm cultivate 
them. Mrs. Robinson 
King, Empress of India 
Lord Alcester, Queen of 
England, and Robert 
Cannell were all splendid, 
and good examples also 
are seen of Flora Mac¬ 
donald and Noel Pragnell, 
two promising new in¬ 
curved varieties. 
The great house in which 
the bulk of the plants is 
arranged has a path down 
the centre this year, and a 
very wide bank of plant s 
on each side, profusely 
bloomed bushes of the best single varieties also being 
placed on each side of the entrance. Another large 
span-roof house is devoted to late kinds only in bud 
at present, while a long span-roof is full of seedlings, 
and amongst these hundreds of plants which are 
from seed sown in February there are several of 
great promise, one Jap. variety in colour resembling 
Triomphe du Nord, and another large white Jap. 
being very fine. A large single white which has 
been named Mrs. C. Seeley is also a fine thing. 
Thriving batches of Eucharis bristling with spikes, 
double white Primula in full bloom, a long house of 
Zonals all ablaze with colour, and a collection of 
Apples grown on young trees in the nursery were all 
worth a note, besides a big batch of Coelogyne 
cristata in 6 in. pots, in most robust health, and 
another batch of Zonal Pelargonium Turtle’s Surprise 
of surprising floriferousness. Although the last 
mentioned are all interesting to gardeners, the show 
of Chrysanthemums alone induces crowds of people 
to come from Nottingham and districts on Thursday 
and Saturday afternoons especially. 
--S-- 
Chrysanthemum Soup. —At a little dinner recently 
given by Mr. John Thorpe an appropriate delicacy 
was Chrysanthemum soup, in which choice Japanese 
flowers, finely chopped, formed the flavouring. Mr. 
Thorpe says it was good, too, and his guests seem to 
agree with him .—American Florist. 
Odontoglossum grande. 
