798 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
August 10, 1901. 
Some growers cover over the surface with a thin 
layer of cocoanut fibre, which prevents rapid 
evaporation and keeps the surface free from moss. 
Place the pans on a shelf in the greenhouse close to 
the glass, shading them from the sun. They ger¬ 
minate more quickly, however, in a mild bottom 
heat. By November they will be large enough to 
handle, when they should be pricked off, using the 
same compost as previously mentioned, and placing 
nine or a dozen plants in a 48 sized pot. When 
large enough pot them singly into thumbs, but do 
not pot too deeply. Pot the plants as they require 
it finishing with those of 48-size, which is generally 
large enough for them to flower in. This should be 
done about July. Grow the seedlings on to the 
flowering stage without a check. Avoid draughts, 
maintain an even temperatnre, shade in the summer 
and keep free from insects.—T. W. Dollcry, The 
Gardens, Whitburn, Sunderland. 
CROCUSES GROWING AMONGST THE 
GRASS. 
It is a glorious sight to see large masses of these in 
bloom on a sunny day in spring, and the more so 
if they are allowed to extend in an informal way. 
Some growers mix the colours altogether, but this I 
do not appreciate, in this way the one colour often 
kills the other for distant effect. 
This year, when in bloom, in our pleasure grounds, 
I had an object lesson of the advantage of having 
them in one colour, in each mass, in a portion of 
our grounds where the grass is allowed to grow in a 
somewhat natural way, being only mown twice in 
the year, under some large Oak trees which are 
somewhat thin in herbage from age. Under this 
close up to the foot of the trunk one mass was 
all ablaze with colour of the large giant yellow ; 
another with striped blue, and so on in other 
p siticns having been planted in a natursl way. In 
some bunches there were scores of bloom and as 
they were practically supported by the long grass 
the wind and rain did not beat them down in the 
the way it does when on beds, or where the grass is 
very short. When growing on the grass they do 
not get splashed by the dirt which spoils them. 
A good combination is Yellow Crocuses and 
Snowdrops as they are in bloom at the same time. 
It is astonishing how much colour and enjoyment 
may be had in a garden at a little cost, and what is 
more refreshing to the sight and mind after the dull 
winter than to see these and many other bulbs a 
mass of bloom on the grass. It may not be restricted 
to the dressed ground, for more pleasure is obtained 
by massing them about the grounds, so that you 
come on them unexpectedly. This type of garden¬ 
ing has many charms, and costs but little. In our 
grounds these have been going on for upwards of 
twenty years since first planted.— J. C., Chard. 
GRANDIS. 
ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
By the Editor. 
Freak of Cattleya gigas.—The behaviour of 
Orchids under various conditions and circumstances 
is notorious. We frequently get specimens of a 
most curious order, some of them so much reduced 
and deformed in their floral organs as to be practi¬ 
cally worthless. On the other hand, there may be a 
multiplication or an amplification of parts so that 
for mere decorative purposes they cannot be re¬ 
garded as inferior to the normal form. In this latter 
category comes a specimen sent us by Mr. David 
Wilson, Tollcross Park, Glasgow, one of the fore¬ 
men under the superintendent, Mr. James Whitton. 
It is a specimen of Cattleya gigas, in which the 
lower flower on a spike of three has behaved in a 
very curious way. The stalk has become amalga¬ 
mated with the main floral axis, almost to the base 
of the ovary. The dorsal sepal has a half petal on 
one side of it ; yet the petals themselves are normal. 
The two lateral sepals, on the contrary, have simu¬ 
lated both petals and lip. On their outer border 
they have developed a half petal, while the inner or 
contiguous edges have developed a half lip each. It 
is not a case of one lip split up. The lip proper is 
normal. The two half lips on the lateral sepals 
being on the inner edges of the latter it follows that 
they are halves belonging to two different lips, so 
that the flower has three half sepals and two half 
lips extra. It might be argued that two flowers 
were amalgamated in one, but externally there is 
nothing to show it. 
ARCTOTIS GRANDIS, 
Of the best of these South African Composites 
which have been introduced to cultivation that 
which most nearly approaches A. grandis in the 
colour of its flowers is A. arborescens; but the tall 
woody habit of the latter will serve to distinguish it 
from the plant under notice, which is an annual. 
By sowing it in the autumn it might practically be 
considered a biennial; but if sown in February or 
March it may be flowered the same year in the open 
ground. The best method of treatment to give it is 
that generally given to half hardy annuals, namely, 
to sow the seed in heat, and prick off the seedlings, 
planting them in the open ground about the end of 
May after thoroughly hardening them off. So 
treated, a fine bunch of flowers was exhibited by Mr. 
Arthur W. Wade, Riverside Nursery, North Station 
Road, Colchester, at the Lily Conference held at 
Chiswick on the 16th ult. 
The rays are white, with a pale lilac reverse, and 
slightly tinted with yellow at the base. The 
disc is violet, and that alone would distinguish it 
from A. arborescens, an old inhabitant of the green¬ 
house. The plant under notice grows about 1 ft. 
high, and has runcinate pinnatifid leaves, that is, 
deeply divided and lobed in an irregular manner, 
and thinly woolly on both sides. The seeds were 
procured from South West Africa, and like all other 
Composites from that sunny clime it delights in sun¬ 
shine, and would therefore prove a useful subject in 
droughty and warm summers in this country. It 
would serve for beds or borders, or for cut flower 
purposes. 
PLANTS RECENTLY CERTIFICATED. 
The awards mentioned hereunder were made by the 
Royal Horticultural Society on the 30th ult. 
Orchid Committee. 
Cypripedium Mrs. Rehder Oakvvood var.— The 
parentage of this variety was C. Argus x rothschildi- 
anum, aDd the progeny has the large flowers of the 
latter, with the colour recalling the former to a 
considerable extent. The petals are long, decurved, 
pale yellowish, and beautifully marked with black 
spots. The dorsal sepal is enriched with maroon 
spots and markings following the course of the 
principal veins. The pale lip is brownish in front. 
(Award of Merit.) Norman C. Cookson, Esq. 
(gardener, Mr. W. Murray), Oakwood, Wylam-on- 
Tyne. 
Cypripedium Maudiae magnificum. —The general 
features of this hybrid may be grasped from the 
fact that the parents were C. callosum Sanderae x 
lawrenceanum hyeanum. The broadly ovate dorsal 
sepal is of a beautiful shade of green, passing into 
white at the apex. The petals have a similar 
arrangement of colours, making a handsome flower 
of the popular greenish type. (First-classCertificate.) 
Capt. G. W. Law-Schofield (gardener, Mr. Shill), 
New-Hall-Hey, Rawtenstall. 
Floral Committee. 
Montbretia Germania. —The flowers of this variet, 
are large, well expanded, and of a rich orange colour 
the back of the three outer segments being intensi¬ 
fied to orange crimson. It is therefore one of the 
handsomest of the hybrid varieties in cultivation ; 
and the only one we can compare it to is Imperialis; 
but we are assured it is a freer flowering plant and 
more easily grown than Imperialis. (Award of 
Merit.) J. T. Bennett Poe, Esq. (gardener, Mr. 
Downes), Holmewood, Cheshunt, and Messrs. Paul 
& Son, Cheshunt. 
Gypsofhila paniculata flore pleno. —Forsome 
years past the single form of this has enjoyed great 
Arctotis 
