578 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
May 18, i89S. 
business for himself as a professional florist. Even 
at that early day Mr. Turner’s skill had proclaimed 
itself in his many victories of competition, and 
keenly desirous to obtain plants from a source 
ostensibly most able to appraise their value, I was 
soon first his correspondent and thereafter an annual 
visitor to his famous collection. There, and in the 
visits he paid to me at Derby, I was a watchful 
student of his ready, almost unerring skill in selec¬ 
tion, and his equally ready almost marvellous art in 
manipulation. No florist ever known to me had 
quicker insight into the merits of a flower or a 
collection of flowers, or a shrewder perception of 
the possibilities of artistic arrangement, the develop¬ 
ment in the fullest degree of the effects of contrast 
or the charms of combination, than he. 
Under such influence I graduated, and when first 
he sent me in as one of the judges at his great 
opening show, upon his occupation, in 1849 of the 
Royal Nursery, Slough, and in a later year, after 
markedly refusing seme proffers from much older 
florists, he called upon me to take in hand the pre¬ 
paration of certain of his Picotees, I felt no little 
elation of heart with such evidence of my master's 
approval. And what vistas of glorious flowers, as 
one recalls those far-off days, arise to sight. What 
memories of dearly-valued friends passed to the 
great dead ’ First the friend I have just referred to, 
Charles Turner, king of florists and prince of good 
fellows. Who that ever heard his song could avoid 
the feeling that had not his bent made him leader of flor¬ 
ists, his glorious voice w ould have made him leader of 
song! John Keynes, kindliest of men, Richard Headly, 
the embodiment of the high-minded country gentle¬ 
man, warm-hearted, enthusiastic, hospitable,generous 
and choleric to a fault. Dr, Hardy whose mind and 
training alike led him to seek scientific accuracy and 
who was first among florists in his papers on “ Perfec¬ 
tion of form in the Tulip," to appeal to science for 
the properties of florist’s flowers. Mr. Wood, John 
Frederick Wood, editor of the Midland Florist, a 
“ gentle" man, one w-hom to know was to love, and 
knowing to respect, a man alike of gifts and attain¬ 
ments, pure, high-souled, full of enthusiastic love and 
devotion to Nature, and a deep sense of her beauties 
and blessings. Marris, Holyoake, Hextall, Merry- 
weather, Steward, Sam Brown, and many others 
now gone to their rest. Of later friends, Thomas 
Moore and Shirley Hibherd. But of these I need 
not speak, their memories are yet green and fragrant. 
With these it has been my privilege to have had 
much and sw.eet communion, and never will that en¬ 
joyment, whilst memory holds, fade from my mind. 
Few of my comrades and companions of those 
far-off days yet remain. John Ball, whom I found 
not yet in his teens, a young lad at Chalvey, upon 
my first visit in 1846, is yet to the fore'at the Royal 
Nursery, Slough, a trusted departmental leader. 
Thomas Bower and Ben Simonite, two young York¬ 
shire men, barely out of their teens when visiting me 
in 1850, have done good service—dear old Ben 
indeed, as he is affectionately known to his familiars, 
has a world-wide fame—as also have my valued 
friends W. M. Hewitt and John S. Hedderley. 
In these later days a wide development has been 
given to the Carnation,and its popularity has advanced 
by great leaps and bounds. No careful observer 
would venture to deny that the work of the florist, 
regarded from his exhibition stand-point, has had a 
marked influence on this popularity and extension 
of culture, and equally I believe no intelligent 
florist could fail to acknowledge there are, types of 
beauty unrecognised in the present pale of his laws, 
of high service for general and decorative use. 
Especially in the yellow ground section, we have a 
field practically illimitable in the highest property of 
all flowers, variety. May the younger generation 
rising to power lead and use it to the full. — E. S. 
Dodwell, The Cottage, Stanley Road, Oxford. 
--—- 
Genista arduinei.— Ihe general aspect of this plant 
is similar to that of the British G. pilosa, but the 
leaves consist of three leaflets instead of being simple 
and lanceolate as in the latter species. The stems 
are dwarf, branching and procumbent, bearing a 
profusion of golden-yellow flowers, which are pro¬ 
duced earlier than that of G. pilosa. Both are 
admirably adapted for the shelving ledges of rock- 
work as they lie close to the stones to which they 
impart an alpine character. That under notice may 
be seen in the nursery of Mr. T. S. Ware, Tottenham 
ON CYPRIPEDIUMST 
The Cypripedium constitutes an important genus of 
the Orchid family, and is commonly known as " Our 
Ladies Slipper," owing to the pouch or lip resembling 
a lady’s slipper. Some are very handsome, with 
scarlet and" deep purple pouches, as in a good C. 
Chamberlainianum ; others havedull green pouches, 
as in C. javanicum ; others again are distinguished 
by their white dorsal sepals, as C. Spicerianum; and 
the Selenepediums or C. caudatum class have long 
tail-like sepals, which sometimes attain a length of 
2 ft. Some species die down in winter, as for 
instance C. Calceolus, but all retain the one 
characterestic of having a slipper-like pouch, 
although sometimes varied in shape, as in the C. 
Stonei section. 
They are found in various parts of the world, but 
most plentifully in East Indian and Malayan regions, 
and amongst the Andes of the northern parts of 
South America. The number of species and varieties 
now in cultivation is very numerous, I have a list of 
850 names, but some of them are decidedly unin¬ 
teresting, having dull watery-looking flowers, with 
little or no pretensions to beauty. Yet they are 
admired by some and are grown and reproduced in 
seedlings with little or no variation, but are given 
excessively fancy names and sold, often at high 
prices. The greatest difficulty is sometimes ex¬ 
perienced in importing Cypripediums owing to their 
scarcity in their natural habitats, and as an instance 
of this C. Fairieanum may be mentioned, the native 
home of this handsome species being unknown, and 
so far having defied all efforts to find it. 
The cultural requirements of the genus vary con¬ 
siderably, some requiring very different treatment to 
others, owing to their having brittle and fleshy leaves 
and roots, as in the C. concolor and C. bsllatulum 
section. The latter species I understand, in a state 
of nature, grows upon limestone rock, and seems to 
grow and thrive well when potted in broken lime¬ 
stone or old mortar rubble, making long leathery- 
leaves and flowering with remarkable freedom. C. 
insigne is a species that will grow anywhere and 
almost anyhow, as it does well in any greenhouse 
with a liberal supply of water. So also does C. 
venustum, which likes plenty of water when grow¬ 
ing C. barbatum and its varieties are easily- 
enough grown, but require more heat than either 
C. insigne or C. venustum. These are usually 
potted in a mixture of peat, sphagnum moss, and 
loam, and often dosed with liquid manure when 
showing for flower. This, I 'think, is a mistake, 
although they seem to do well. 
We have a very large collection at Warrington, 
one of the largest in the north of England, and I 
have never found a species or variety that refused to 
grow. I am under the impression that they are the 
easiest of all Orchids to grow, with a little amount of 
attention to the natural habits of each. C. Cham¬ 
berlainianum grows like a weed, and is nearly always 
in flower. So does C. Stonei flower by the dozen, 
and even C. vexillarium grow-s and breaks freely, 
making plants rapidly. C. Boiserianum grows very 
freely, as do all the C caudatum section, which are 
seldom out of flower. I have a mode of treatment 
which is my own, and which according to some 
Orchid authorities is all w-rong. I rarely, if ever, 
use peat. In fact I have entirely- discarded it, 
except that now and then I use it on the tops of the 
pots of a few plants on which to raise seedlings. In 
the first place I like plenty of pot room for the new 
roots to travel into and plenty of drainage. My 
principal compost is made up of potsherds, brick- 
dust, loam, and a little sphagnum moss. The plants 
begin to root very freely in this as soon as they- are 
potted. They are watered very freely with a 
syringe and kept rather moist, although I do not like 
too much at the roots, but trust to moisture in the 
atmosphere. 
I am not fond of too much heat as 6o° at night 
and 70° in the daytime, will grow any cf the 
Cypripedes of the Rothschilaianum and Sander- 
ianum section and io° lower will do for the greater 
part of the other species. They do not all like the 
same treatment, as such as C. concolor, C. 
Godefroyte and that class like their roots kept on the 
dry- side, or in other words for the w-ater as soon as 
given to drain away quickly-. An excess of moisture 
about the collars of the plants is likely to end in rot 
setting in. 
* A paper read by Mr. W. Bolton, of Warrington at a 
meeting of the Chester Paxton Society. 
It is most important in my opinion that the plants 
be kept clear of insect pests of which there are 
numbers ready to assail them, but the most to be 
dreaded is the yellow thrip, and it is the most 
difficult to eradicate. I shall never forget buying 
some plants of C. Lawrenceanum by auction, which 
I thought had been damaged by using too strong soft 
soap, but instead were full of yellow thrips, making 
the leaves look unsightly and gradually killing the 
plants. We tried every kind of insecticide that we 
knew of without killing the plants, but it was all of 
very little use. Strong methylated spirit seemed to 
improve their vigour, and soft soap caused them to 
lie dormant for awhile, when they awoke livelier than 
ever. We next tried soaking them in water for 
twelve hours, still they seemed all right even after 
the leaves were showing signs of softening through 
being too long immersed. We tried strong Tobacco 
water, made from what is known locally as thick 
twist, 1 oz. of Tobacco to the gill of water; and 
followed this up with a dredging of sulphur. The 
plants were gradually dying now and looked a sorry 
lot. As a last resort we tried killing every thrip that 
was visible every- three or four hours for a period of 
three weeks. This seemed to be effectual and we 
then placed them in the cool Odontoglossum house, 
where I am happy to say they are doing well and 
making fine plants. 
The common red, black, and other ants are very 
troublesome to the plants if allowed to increase. They 
feed on the various kinds of scale, carrying it from 
one plant to another, and then, to prevent the syringe 
from washing them off, place small sticks, little bits 
of soil, etc., over them, till at last they rot the heart 
of the .plants and cause their decay. Green-fly will 
sometimes attack the flowers, especially of the C. 
insigne section, causing the blooms to become 
crippled and unsightly. The various kinds of scale 
will also cause the disfigurement of the foliage as 
well as interfere with their general health. 
The raising of new varieties has now become very 
common, it is also very interesting, although you 
have to wait some three to four years before the 
seedlings flower. Still this is no longer than in 
the case of the Auricula, and not so long as 
in the case of Tulips. It takes from six to twelve 
months to ripen the pod, and then as long for the 
seed to germinate. While on the subject of seedlings 
I may mention that last year I did not know of 
anyone having raised Odontoglossum seedlings. I 
am happy to say that I crossed some Oaonto- 
glossums three years ago, the seed was sown as soon 
as ripe, ten months after, and some time last year 
some of it came up and I have several seedlings in 
various stages of development. As soon as the seed 
germinates it continues to grow or swell till it gets to 
the size of a small pea, perfectly round and white, 
then it grows on till an Odontoglossum bulb comes 
on the top with a small leaf and the bottom portion 
just like a Pleione bulb. I hope I shall be fortunate 
to keep them till they flower, they have germinated 
upon a plant of Odontoglossum grande. 
There are no florist properties so-called in Cypri¬ 
pediums, the highest priced ones seeming to owe 
their value to their rarity. Some have great lasting 
properties, the flowers lasting for four months, and 
very few rarely less than two or three weeks. None 
of the flowers will stand the hot dry beat of the 
pipes during frosty weather ; they soon fade, and to 
this I attribute the great loss that is said to occur 
from fogs. I am afraid fogs are blamed very often 
when it is simply the heating that is overdone to 
drive out the damp, causing a dry atmosphere which 
has a very injurious effect upon the buds, etc., of 
some species of Orchids. Flowers of C. insigne 
when cut will last in a cool room for several weeks. 
--S-- 
THE MODERN PETUNIA. 
Petunias have long been attractive to me. Some 
twelve years ago, having succeeded in raising a few 
plants with double flowers from imported seed, I 
determined to try my hand at pollinating a few 
blossoms, in hope of getting a double flower of 
my- own, as I may say, parentage. It may be as 
well to state here that double Petunias, like many 
other double flowers, do not yield any seed them¬ 
selves, but in order to get seed which will yield 
double flowers a single-flowering variety must be 
fertilized with the pollen from a double flower, when 
the seed from this flower will yield a certain per¬ 
centage of double flowering plants. 
