THE GARDENING WORLD 
266 
December 26, 1896. 
Odontoglossums.— The less fire-heat you give your 
plants the better, G., York. With such mild weather 
as we have been having of late you will not require 
any. Covering up the house should be practiced 
each night when it is feared that the thermometer 
may drop too low. A temperature of about 45 0 , or a 
little under, may be easily kept through the night 
while the weather is mild, without any fire-heat, and 
this will suit your Odontoglossums capitally. 
Basket. Ferns for a Cool House. —You will find 
the following Ferns suitable for hanging baskets for 
a cool house, J. S. J .:—Hypolepis repens, Asplenium 
flaccidum, A. fabianum, and Adiantum Capillus- 
Veneris. A. C.-V cornubiense is a lovely form, but 
it is somewhat delicate, and will not put up with very 
rough treatment. Woodwardia radicans would do 
with you if you have the room to give it, which we 
greatly doubt, for its fronds have a considerable 
spread, and need a large house to contain them. 
Yine Outdoors. —You may prune your Vine any 
lime between this and the spring. It will be as well 
to leave it now until the winter is over, say about 
the beginning of March. 
-- 
SEASONABLE FLOWERS AT CHELSEA. 
Orchids. 
The members of this popular and extensive family 
bloom practically all the year round. Some of the 
groups flower at a certain period with unfailing 
regularity, but others keep up a display in almost 
every month or week of the year. We passed through 
the nursery of Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, Chelsea, 
the other week and noted a great variety of subjects 
in bloom, and in the first instance would speak of 
Orchids we noted in the various houses. 
Entering at the ccol end of the complicated range 
of houses, a quantity of Masdevallia tovarensis 
flowering from the old and young sheaths met our 
view. They were large pieces and bore numerous 
pure white flowers. The cool Odontoglossum house 
contained a large batch of O. crispum, recently 
imported and flowering for the first time. Some 
beautiful varieties are in bloom and many others 
may be expected. One with round and nearly 
uniform rose flowers is very pretty, and recalls O. c. 
fastuosum. O. cirrhosum bore large panicles of ifs 
beautifully-blotched flowers. There were also pretty 
forms of O. andersonianum and O. wilckeanum ; and 
the spikes of various species are now being pushed 
up. 
The warm Cypripedium house is always interest¬ 
ing, inasmuch as it is never without a display of 
Cypripediums, and venous other heat-loving Orchids 
as well. Substantially built new stages have recently 
been put into this house. Here were groups of C. 
insigne Chantini heavily blotched, and C. leeanum 
in a great variety of colours. . The richness of C. 
oenanthum superbum appeals to the lover of Orchids 
at all seasons as one of the richest-coloured varieties 
in cultivation. Another beautiful dwarf hybrid is 
C. Niobe, the flowers of which recall the parents, 
C. spicerianum and C. fairieanum. C. Euryades 
(Boxalli x leeanum) is notable for the black blotches 
on the greenish-yellow upper sepal. A strong con¬ 
trast is afforded by the soft rosy-white and spotted 
flowers of C. T. B. Haywood. Well known are the 
beautiful flowers of C. arthurianum. The flowers of 
C. Ianthe are of huge size and of a bronzy rich 
brown, tinted with rose towards the edges. The 
upper sepal of C. Zeno is of a dark shining brown, 
almost black in one case, but there are various forms 
of this hybrid differing considerably from one 
another. Some of the Selenipedium group are 
flowering, and others in great variety are represented 
by large and healthy plants that will soon recom¬ 
mence flowering. 
We had the pleasure of noting Coelogyne Veitchi 
(see accompanying illustration) when it bloomed in 
this country for the first time. Soon after that 
(27th August, 1895) it received an Award of Merit 
from the Royal Horticultural Society, and we 
described it in The Gardening World, Vol. XII., 
p. 26. Through the courtesy of Messrs. J. Veitch & 
Sons we are now able to place a reproduction of it 
before our readers. The pendant and graceful 
racemes of pure white flowers vary from 1 ft. to 
2\ ft. in length. The flowers also come largest on 
the pseudo-bulbs developed at Chelsea. At present 
the species is very rare, and the few plants in 
cultivation are suspended from the roof of the 
Cypripedium house, where they seem quite bappyi 
the young growths recently made being very good. 
The collection of Phalaenopsis is rich in rare 
kinds, besides stroDgand healthy pieces of the better 
known species and forms, such as P. amabilR, P. 
schilleriana, P. stuartiana, P. sanderiana, and P. 
grandifiora. Amongst the rarer kinds we no'ed 
P. F. L. Ames, P. ludde-violacea, P. Vesta, P. 
Mariae (very rare), the dark violet P. viclacea 
schroderiana, and the rare P. v. bowringiana. The 
variation amongst the leaves of P. Esmeralda is 
something remarkable, for one would take the plants 
to represent a number of spe cies. Most of the above 
are either in flower or making in that direction, and 
if the London fog spares the blooms there will be a 
fine display. 
Suspended from the roof is a fine piece of 
Angraecum sanderianum, bearing four flower spikes. 
A rare species is A. chailluanum, with curiously- 
formed white flowers and long spurs. The Calanthes 
now in season are represented by C. Bella, very 
strong and bearing racemes of rosy flowers shaded 
with white; also by C. Veitchi, in fine form, and 
other varieties. Suspended over an open tank in 
another house are strong plants of Dendrobium 
wardianum, well set with buds on long pendant 
stems. Hybrids are also suspended in large numbers. 
One division of the raDge contains a large number of 
species and hybrids of Cymbidium in healthy condi¬ 
tion, including C. eburneo-lowianurh, C. traceyanum, 
C. eburneum, C. lowianum, and C. giganteum. 
Vanda caerulea is also doing well here. 
The Orchid rockery is always interesting owing to 
to the number of flowering specimens there. At 
present it is enlivened with fice pieces of Cymbidium 
winnianum, C. Mastersii, and C. cyperifolium like a 
small C. traceyanum. There are large and showy 
panicles of Oncidium tigrinum and O. varicosum, 
together with Zygopetalum Mackayi, bearing six 
long racemes, and a smaller plant of a richly-coloured 
variety. The best of the Sobralias are aggregated 
here in considerable numbers. The Cypripediums 
are represented by such fine things as C. insigne 
montanum, C. cardinale, and C. porphyreum, having 
richly-coloured flowers. 
The large Cattleya house contains a vast 
assemblage of plants, but of course the most of 
them are not in season. Those in bloom include 
Laelia anceps, L. autumnalis alba, Cattleya dowiana 
aurea (of which some grand flowers may still be 
seen), and C. bicolor. A quantity of C. Schrcderae 
is in sheath for the first time ; C. citrina has made 
good growth ; and Laelia purpurata is in sheath. In 
another house close by, Miltom'a vexillaria is still 
flowering, as are Laelia acuminata, Sophronites 
grandifiora, etc Others making preparation to 
bloom are Coelogyne cristata, C. c. alba, C. c. 
lemoniana, and Laelia mcnophylla in fine condition. 
The rosy flowers of Dendrobium glomeratum, with 
a scarlet lip, are always flowering and attractive. 
The hawthorn-scented D. fytehianum is both pretty 
Coelogyne Veitchi. 
