November  28,  1896. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
503 
Cattleya  Mantini. 
At  a  meeting  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society  held  on 
October  15tb,  and  again  at  one  on  October  29tb,  Me«srs.  J.  Veitch 
and  Sons,  Royal  Exotic  Nursery,  Chelsea,  staged  a  plant  of  a  new 
hybrid  Cattleya  named  Mantini,  receiving  on  the  former  occasion 
an  award  of  merit,  and  on  the  latter  a  first-class  certificate.  A 
bloom  of  this  charming  Orchid  is  pourtrayed  by  the  illustration 
(fig.  76)  which  shows  clearly  the  shape  of  the  flower.  Resulting 
from  a  cross  between  C.  Dowiana  and  C.  Bowringiana,  of  which 
the  latter  is  the  seed-bearing  parent,  this  Orchid  is  certain  to  find 
many  admirers,  specialists  having  hailed  its  advent  with  much 
pleasure.  The  prevailing  colour  is  an  intense  rosy  purple,  there 
being  on  the  lip  a  blotch  of  bright  velvety  crimson. 
Orchids  at  Edgbaston. 
Amongst  the  several  Orchid  establishments  in  the  neighbour¬ 
hood  of  Birmingham,  not  the  least  important  is  that  belonging  to 
G.  H.  Kenrick,  Esq.,  Edgbaston,  and  noted  principally  for  the  more 
choice  and  rare  species  extant.  At  the  present  time,  however,  it  is 
not  my  intention  to  advert  to  the  general  collection  there,  but 
merely  to  remark  that  at  the  present  period  and  for  several  weeks 
past  the  numerous  plants  of  Phalaenopses,  comprising  such  species 
as  P.  amabilis,  P.  Stuartiana,  P.  Schilleriana,  P.  Esmeralda, 
P.  L  iddemaniana,  and  P.  grandiflora — the  latter  exceedingly  fine — 
form  a  most  attractive  ifeature  with  their  collective  eighty- four 
racemes  of  delicate  beauty,  and  which  reflects  much  credit  on 
Mr.  Macdonald,  the  expert  grower,  under  whose  care  the 
Orchids  have  been  entrusted  but  for  about  the  comparatively  short 
period  of  a  year.  Suffice  to  say  that  the  remainder  of  the 
Orchids,  including  a  grand  specimen  of  Odontoglossum  citrosmum, 
and  the  general  collection  of  the  stove  and  greenhouse  plants,  bear 
evidence  of  high  cultural  skill  and  attention. — G. 
Notes  on  Phal.enopsis. 
These  beautiful  Orchids  have  finished  growin»  for  the  season, 
and  a  capital  progress  they  have  made.  The  foliage  in  nearly 
every  case  that  has  come  under  my  notice  has  been  characterised  by 
that  bard  and  firm  appearance  that  experienced  growers  delight  to 
see.  The  leaves  are  thick  and  substantial  ;  they  stand  rigid,  and  if 
depressed  they  spring  back  readily  to  their  place.  They  are  also 
well  coloured  right  to  the  axils,  and  the  flower  spikes  of  those  that 
are  showing  are  vigorous  and  healthy. 
There  is  little  to  fear  with  plants  of  this  sort  during  winter,  for 
such  will  stand  being  kept  much  drier  than  would  be  the  case  were 
the  foliage  soft  and  flabby  ;  therefore,  when  day  after  day  passes 
without  a  glimrse  of  sunshine  they  can  wait.  There  is  no  need  to 
water  them  until  a  bright  morning,  when  they  may  have  a  good 
soaking,  and  most  of  the  moisture  about  the  bases  of  the  plants 
will  have  dried  up  before  nightfall. 
With  soft  and  unconsolidated  plants,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
would  be  unsafe  to  allow  them  to  get  really  dry  even  for  a  day,  for 
if  no  apparent  harm  was  done  at  the  time  the  probability  is  that 
the  foliage  would  eventually  be  lost  by  getting  loose  at  the  axils 
in  spring.  The  mode  of  watering  now  must  be  rather  different  to 
that  practised  in  summer.  At  the  latter  season  we  generally  take 
the  plants  down  that  are  suspended  under  the  roof,  and  dip  them 
in  a  pail  or  similar  receptacle,  and  although  not  immersing  the 
foliage,  we  are  not  particular  about  a  little  water  getting  on  it. 
But  now  it  is  of  importance  that  the  leaves  are  kept  quite  dry,  so 
the  plants  are  stood  on  the  floor  of  the  house  and  watered  from 
the  spout  of  a  can  or  through  the  rose  of  a  syringe,  the  latter  for 
preference,  as  the  water  is  forced  more  equally  through  the 
compost. 
There  is  not  a  more  floriferous  class  of  Orchids  in  existence 
than  Pha’asnopsis,  and  where  the  plants  are  not  in  very  good 
health,  or  only  semi-established,  the  production  and  maintenance 
of  a  large  spike  of  flower  is  too  much  of  a  drain  on  their 
resources.  Pinching  the  spikes  out  as  they  form  is  often  resorted 
to  in  this  case,  but  I  have  often  found  that  when  this  is  done 
secondary  spikes  are  produced  and  the  plant  consequently  still 
further  weakened.  Instead  of  this  the  spikes  should  be  left  until 
the  flower  buds  are  discernible,  and  the  number  then  restricted  by 
pinching.  This  precaution  is  of  course  especially  needful  for  the 
smaller,  more  weakly  growing,  kinds. 
As  an  instance,  P.  Lowi  sometimes  throws  out  flower  spikes  at 
the  beginning  of  winter,  it  being,  according  to  my  experience  with 
it,  a  very  inconstant  species  in  its  time  of  flowering.  These  flowers, 
then,  will  be  forming  at  a  time  when  the  energies  of  the  plant  are 
at  the  lowest  ebb,  and  are  often  the  cause  of  this  kind  lo»ing  most 
of  its  foliage  in  winter,  a  proceeding  which,  though  I  believe  it 
natural  to  it  in  its  tropical  habitat,  is  certainly  to  be  guarded  against 
under  cultivation.  For  this  reason  P.  Lowi  should  be  given  the 
warmest  position  in  the  house  during  winter,  and  the  sphagnum 
about  the  roots  kept  green  without  allowing  it  to  grow  too  strongly, 
and  therefore  holding  moisture  in  excess  of  the  plant’s  needs. 
Quite  different  to  this  is  the  robust-growing  P.  Schilleriana, 
which  unless  the  plants  are  in  really  bad  condition  at  the  roots  is 
seldom  injured  by  flowering,  and  this  and  a  few  similar  kinds  are 
by  far  the  most  suitable  in  the  genus  for  beginners  in  Orchid 
culture  to  experiment  with.  They  require  care  beyond  what  is 
FIG.  76.— CATTLEYA  MANTIM. 
necessary  for  the  general  run  of  pseudo-bulbous  Orchids,  but  thi.s 
is  amply  compensated  for  by  their  beauty  when  in  blossom,  *nl 
when  once  their  culture  is  mastered  they  possess  attractions 
innumerable,  and  are  unrivalled  in  the  whole  Orchid  family. 
— H.  R.  R. 
MODERN  GRAPE  GROWING— TREATMENT  AFTER 
STONING. 
{Continued  from  page  410.) 
At  the  commencement  of  the  second  swelling  it  is  generally  desir¬ 
able  to  give  Muscats  and  late  Grapes  a  somewhat  higher  temperature,  in 
order  to  have  them  ripened  in  the  autumn  before  the  sun  loses  too  much 
of  its  power,  and  yet,  if  the  Muscats  are  to  be  kept,  it  is  not  well  to 
have  them  ripened  too  early,  for  if  we  have  much  hot  sun  in  September, 
and  we  frequently  do,  some  of  the  berries  are  very  apt  to  be  discoloured. 
If  the  foliage  remains  good.  Muscats  will  continue  colouring  through¬ 
out  October  ;  but  they  must  reach  the  stage  in  September,  when  they 
taste  perfectly  sweet.  In  a  good  season  they  will  do  this  with  ordinary 
temperatures,  but  in  a  cold  wet  one  it  is  necessary  to  fire  fairly  hard. 
When  not  ripened  too  early  there  is  a  better  chance  of  keeping  the 
foliage  in  good  condition  late  in  the  autumn,  and  this  is  very  important 
for  the  following  year’s  crop. 
When  “  Colmans  ”  are  very  large  in  berry,  say  inches,  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  fully  colour  them  in  September,  and  no  one  need  be 
alarmed  about  it,  for  if  the  Vines  are  in  good  condition  the  fiuit  will 
continue  colouring  up  to  the  middle  of  November.  With  most  other 
varieties  it  is  different ;  they  take  a  shorter  time  to  colour,  and  they  do 
it  better  before  the  1st  of  October  than  after. 
As  a  rule  all  the  varieties  want  a  large  amount  of  ventilation  ;  but 
if  there  is  any  difficulty  in  keeping  up  the  temperature.  Muscats  will  do 
with  less  of  it  than  other  varieties,  but  Hamburgbs  and  other  early 
Grapes  must  have  abundance  of  air.  The  skin  of  white  Grapes  is 
