July 7, 1900 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
713 
only after a fashion in most of the gardens in which 
we have seen it. A bed that suits Ghent and 
Mollis Azaleas also suits this, but the Azaleas 
should be close planted to give the Lilium all the 
shelter and nurse protection possible. It has not 
been long enough introduced for us to speak with 
experience about it. The bulbs are not very dear. 
Rose Arches .—Andrew Tait: Roughly trimmed 
Larch branchlets, about the thickness of a man's 
wrist will do well. You need not fear any injury 
from them upon the Roses. 
Liliums going bad.— A.B.C.: The portion of 
apical stem sent proves the plants to have been 
much neglected during their earlier growth, so much 
so that the greenflies which have caused them to be 
as they are have ruined this year’s flower display. 
Aquatics.— A.\ Hints on the subject will be 
given shortly. A small collection of Nymphaeas 
can be grown in tubs. 
DENDROBIUM FIMBRIATUM 
OCULATDM. 
This fine Dendrob enjoys a wide distribution from 
the Khasia Hill in the Himalayas to Burmah and 
other places. It was sent to Chatsworth in 1837, by 
a collector named Gibson ; and possibly its being 
sent to Chatsworth at that time would account for 
its being sometimes found in gardens under the 
name of D. Paxtoni. The flowers are produced in 
lax, drooping racemes, and being of large size their 
rich and decided colours make them very handsome 
indeed, the blackish-maroon blotch on the base of 
the lip contrasting boldly with the orange-yellow of 
the rest of the flower. It is dwarfer than the type, 
being generally 2 ft. to 3 ft. high; whereas D. 
fimbriatum itself grows 4 ft. to 5 ft. high, and has 
simply orange-yellow flowers. The accompanying 
illustration represents a plant grown by Mr. G. 
Wood, gardener to J. Buchanan, Esq., Oswald 
House, Oswald Road, Edinburgh. Orchids gener¬ 
ally are great favourites at Oswald House, a con¬ 
siderable amount of space being devoted to them, 
while many of the plants are of large size and very 
old, indicating good cultivation. 
---*•- 
BIG BUNCHES OF GRAPES. 
In your review of " Vines and Vine Culture,” you 
mention a bunch of Grapes over 19 lbs. grown at 
Welbeck as being the largest bunch grown in this 
country. It may not have come under your obser¬ 
vation that at an international show, held in the 
Music Hall, Edinburgh, on the 15th and 16th 
$2ptember, 1875, there were two bunches of Grapes 
shown, one bunch of Raisin de Calabre weighing 
26 lbs. 4 ozs,, grown by Mr. Curror, Eskbank, Dal- 
kieth ; the other bunch grown by Mr. Dickson, at 
Arkleton, Langbam, the variety being White Nice, 
weighing 25 lbs. 15 ozs. Such monsters may be 
classed in the category of novelties, as they are quite 
out of place in the requirements of private and 
market establishments, where the general rule at the 
present time is to get as many serviceable bunches 
as possible without over-taxing the Vines. — Wm. G. 
Pirie. 
[We were quite aware of bigger bunches having 
been grown in this country than that of Syrian men¬ 
tioned, as you will see by the previous sentence in 
our leader to which your refer; but the Welbeck 
specimen referred entirely to the ancient variety 
Syrian. The bunch of Raisin de Calabre grown by 
Mr. Curror at Eskbank was really Trebbiano, which 
we mentioned as being “ notable for the production 
of big bunches amongst modern varieties.” Under 
the variety Raisin de Calabre you will find a note in 
Vines and Vine Culture stating that this variety has 
bad its name applied though erroneously so to 
Trebbiano. We had overlooked the case of White 
Nice, which you quote ; and, strange to say, it has 
also been confused with the ancient variety Syrian. 
In speaking of Black Hamburgh to which we referred 
on p. 676, we may say that Mr. Hunter of Lambton 
Castle, has produced the largest bunches of it seen 
in this country, namely, that which he showed at 
Belfast in 1874, weighing 21 lbs. 12 ozs., and that he 
showed at Manchester in 1875, weighing 13 lbs. 2 ozs. 
These weights were, of course, excelled by Trebbiano 
and White Nice ; but in stating that 19 lbs. was the 
heaviest bunch of Syrian produced in this country 
amongst ancient varieties we believe the statement is 
still correct as far as written record goes. It was the 
biggest bunch, however, ever recorded in this country 
of any Grape until 1874, when Black Hamburgh 
eclipsed it, to be in turn eclipsed by Trebbiano in 
1875, and by White Nice, the two varieties you 
mention.— Ed ] 
-- 
PROTOPLASM: THE INSTRUMENT OF 
EVOLUTION AMONG PLANTS. 
In his lecture of Tuesday, June 26th, in the Great 
Vinery at Chiswick, Rev. Prof. Geo. Henslow, M A., 
V.M.H., confined his remarks chiefly to the subject 
of heredity in plants, a branch, or phase, rather, of 
natural science which at present is receiving more 
than ordinary attention. When seeds year after 
Thus it is stated by Bentham that he could draw no 
sharp line between any one in 90 genera of 
Asteroideae. 
A fact now generally accepted is that all plants 
have evolved, or descended if you like, from some¬ 
thing different from what they now are. One fre¬ 
quently hears the expression that things are '* Like 
as two Peas,” but upon minute observation it is 
found that no two things in Nature are exactly alike. 
And it is just these minute variations which lay the 
foundation for greater divergencies and variety. 
The question arises " When do we get enough differ¬ 
ence to satisfy us that we may call it variety, still 
more to call it a species ? ” Well, so long as plants 
grow in the same conditions they do not vary suffi¬ 
ciently in form either to be called varieties or 
species. You must take it away from its natural habi¬ 
tat. Nature carries seeds away by means of water, or 
Dendrobium fimbriatum oculatum. 
year furnish plants alike in all important respects to 
the predecessors, we say that this is the power of 
heredity. If we ask what is it which carries this 
power of heredity, we must go back to the chromo¬ 
somes (see report of lecture on p. 695). These little 
bodies are so minute that no ordinary microscope 
can detect them, and they are contained in the 
gelatinous protoplasm of living plant cells. 
Continuing, Prof. Henslow remarked that 
botanists have classified myriads of plants for by the 
power of heredity, the plants known to and de- 
cribed by Linnaeus or any other old botanist, such 
as Ranunculus bulbosus, to take a simple example, 
are quite recognisable to-day by the descriptions 
written in reference to them long, long ago. But 
the links between genera or species are in many 
cases very close, and the differences are meagre. 
birds or winds,and there are thousands of ways in which 
plants may migrate. It is well known to botanists 
that species vary but little around a certain restricted 
local area wherein they are confined, but go out a 
hundred miles or so to where the borders of the 
species extend, and there one begins to find 
" varieties ” cropping up. These varieties arise be¬ 
cause of the somewhat fresh environs, the conten¬ 
tions for place it may be, that they have to .assert 
against, and other conditions which call up new 
energies and consequently new developments. 
Just as Prof. Henslow said "All plants and 
animals are ‘endowed’ (and there is no better 
word), with the power of response to external con¬ 
ditions.” By these is meant light, air, moisture, &c., 
in other words, their environment. All these 
changes accrue from the plastic power of proto- 
