July  33,  1896. 
JOURNAL  OF  EORTTGULTURE  ANT)  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
77 
that  are  fruiting  fairly  this  season,  for  non©  seems  to  have  really 
heavy  crops,  are  doubtless  those  which  were  not  heavily  cropped  in 
immediate  preceding  years. 
That  there  is  of  Apples,  and  ©specially  on  large  or  standard 
trees,  what  may  be  termed  a  nice  sprinkling  there  can  be  no  doubt ; 
but  the  carrying  of  such  small  crops  will  not  materially  check 
effort  on  the  part  of  the  trees  to  recoup  themselves  by  wider  root 
and  wood  development  after  previous  seasons’  exhaustion.  What 
the  effect  may  be  on  next  year’s  crop  it  is  at  present  difficult  to 
cmjecture,  seeing  that  the  drought  and  heat,  which  are  loth  to 
depar^,  contribute  very  important  factors  in  the  matter. 
We  may  have  early  rains  that  will  penetrate  to  the  roots 
thoroughly  and  do  the  trees  immense  service,  or  we  may  not.  If 
such  rains  do  not  soon  come  then  it  is  obvious  that  such  prolonged 
drought  must  have  very  adverse  result*.  Pears  seem  to  be  a  thinner 
crop  than  are  Apple*,  but  the  sample  is  better.  The  trees  have 
perhaps  suffered  less  from  insects.  Plums,  again,  show  a  very 
partial  crop,  but  the  trees  have  been  worse  affected  by  aphis  than 
any  other  fruits.  Remedies  of  all  descriptions,  especially  good 
washings,  applied  to  wall#  and  small  trees  have  been  beneficial,  but 
hug©  breadths  of  standard  trees  are  difficult  to  deal  with,  as  they 
have  had  to  take  their  chance.  Victorias,  as  usual,  leem  to  be 
giving  the  best  results. 
On  walls  some  good  crops  have  been  seen,  but  such  are 
always  more  amenable  to  beneficial  treatment.  Cherries  seem  to 
have  been  very  fair  ;  though  the  fruit*  have  not  been  large,  still 
they  have  not  been  injured  by  moisture.  Morellos,  as  usual,  have 
been  good.  Red,  White,  and  Black  Currants  and  Gooseberries, 
all  have  carried  very  fair  crops  indeed  ;  they  have  shown,  a*  usual, 
that  bush  fruits  rank  amongst  our  most  reliable  kinds.  Rasp- 
berrie*  would  have  been  very  fine,  and,  as  usual,  plentiful  but  for 
the  drought.  This  has  made  the  later  fruit  small,  and  on  very  dry 
soils  there  has  been  failure.  Raspberries  pay  well  for  deep  culture, 
and  in  dry  seasons  plenty  of  feeding  and  watering. 
Strawberries  proved  to  be  a  better  crop  than  was  originally 
anticipated.  It  was  in  many  directions  surprising  to  find  how  the 
plants  held  on  in  spite  of  the  comparative  dryness.  No  doubt  a 
pretty  general  rain  which  fell  on  one  Wednesday  early  in  June 
rendered  to  Strawberries  excellent  service.  In  many  directions  not 
only  were  these  fine  crops  but  prolonged  ones.  Rain  is,  however, 
now  much  needed  to  enable  strong  runners  to  be  produced  and 
well  rooted.  Outdoors  Peaches  and  Nectarines,  in  spite  of  some 
cold  nights  at  blooming  time,  have  capital  crops.  The  chief  want 
of  the  tree*  now  is  ample  waterings  to  enable  them  to  swell  their 
fruit  thoroughly. 
Apricots  have  been  less  plentiful ;  but  somehow  these  fruits 
seem  to  be  now  generally  less  reliable  croppers  than  are  the  other 
wall  stone  fruits.  Perhaps  their  turn  will  come  some  day  again. 
So  far  it  has  been  a  good  season  for  outdoor  Figs,  and  therefore 
it  should  be  excellent.  Small  Nuts  are  comparatively  thin,  but 
Walnuts  generally  show  heavy  crops.  No  doubt  the  deep- rooting 
nature  of  the  trees  has  proved  helpful  to  them  during  too  dry  a 
season.  Without  doubt,  in  relation  to  fruit  generally,  the  chief 
need  has  been  more  moisture. 
Could  fruit  growers  but  have  at  their  disposal  that  vast 
body  of  liquid  sewage  which  is  yearly,  as  it  were,  wasted,  when 
Nature  is  so  sparing  of  rain,  what  benefits  to  fruit  culture  might  not 
be  accomplished.  Everyone  who  enters  into  fruit  growing  should 
know  that  under  no  conditions,  howioever  favourable  they  may  be, 
can  we  hope  to  have  perpetual  crops.  Bushes  and  Raspberries 
bring  us  nearest  to  that  ideal  state  of  things,  but  these  possess 
undoubtedly  greater  recuperative  powers  than  trees  possess.  They 
are  also  earlier  denuded  of  their  crops.  Still  further,  they  seem  to 
be  much  less  amenable  to  harm  to  their  bloom  in  the  spring  from 
low  temperatures  than  are  the  various  taller  fruit  trees. — A. 
SOBRALIA  LEUCOXANTIIA. 
This  beautiful  Orchid  does  not  appear  to  have  become  very 
plentiful  judging  by  its  non-appearance  in  many  collections,  not¬ 
withstanding  that  it  has  been  known  for  aome  years.  The  plant  is 
dwarf  in  habit,  the  slender  stems  1  to  2  feet  high,  bearing  plicate 
leave*  like  those  of  other  tetter  known  Sobralias,  and  the  flowers 
are  clustered  near  the  apex  of  the  stem.  It  i*  related  to  S.  macro- 
phylla,  but  must  not  be  confounded  with  S.  xantholeuca,  also  a 
valuable  and  handsome  plant  bearing  pale  yellow  flowers. 
When  well  grown  the  flowers  (fig.  12)  are  really  handsome.  The 
sepals  on  some  blooms  I  have  are  nearly  3  inches  long  and  1  inch 
broad,  massive,  pure  white,  and  recurving.  The  petals  are  of  similar 
length  and  breadth,  slightly  recurving,  not  quite  so  thick  as  the 
sepals,  but  pure  white.  The  lip  is  partially  tubular,  the  tube 
2  inches  long,  the  limb  rounded  one-half  to  three-quarters  of  an 
inch  across,  and  beautifully  frilled,  rich  orange,  yellow  in  the  throat 
fading  to  the  margin,  which  is  pure  white  ;  the  base  of  the  lip  and 
the  column  are  also  white.  Each  flower  is  very  neat  in  form,  the 
wax-like  substance  and  purity  being  beautifully  relieved  by  the 
dash  of  orange  in  the  lip. — S. 
Notes  on  LiELiAS. 
The  various  members  of  this  superb  genus  comprise  a  great 
many  really  useful  garden  Orchids,  and  by  no  means  a  few  that 
PIG.  12.— SOBKALIA  LEUCOXANTHA. 
are  quite  indispensable.  What,  for  instance,  could  take  the  place 
of  the  lovely  L.  purpurata  ?  at  once  one  of  the  most  noble  and 
gorgeous  of  all  Orchids.  Again,  what  is  there  in  its  season  more 
beautiful  and  useful  than  the  easily  grown  and  free-blooming 
L.  anceps  ?  Few  growers,  I  take  it,  would  care  to  be  without  these, 
and  many  other  kinds  that  at  once  occur  to  the  mind  when  treating 
of  the  genus.  Botanically  but  little  difference  exists  between 
these  and  Cattleyas,  and  their  affinity  is  shown  in  the  large  and 
increasing  number  of  hybrids  raised  between  the  two  genera  and 
styled  Lgelio-Cattleya.  In  the  latter  genus  there  are  four  pollen 
masses,  while  m  the  former  there  are  eight ;  but  it  is  not  unusual 
to  find  many  Cattleyas  labelled  Laslia  and  vice  versd. 
The  habits  of  the  different  species  vary  considerably,  sonie  having 
very  small  rounded  pseudo-bulbs,  others  large,  cylindrical,  and 
stem-like  ones,  and  though  the  culture  cannot  be  said  to  vary  as 
much  as  the  habit,  they  cannot  be  treated  so  collectively  as  some 
other  genera.  A  very  old  species,  but  worthy  of  every  care,  is 
L.  majalis,  a  native  of  Mexico.  It  is  nearly  sixty  years  since  this 
plant  was  introduced  to  this  country,  though  it  was,  it  is  said, 
known  to  the  natives  of  Mexico  very  many  years  before,  and  held 
by  them  in  superstitious  awe  and  respect.  The  blossom*  are  now 
getting  past  their  best,  and  these  are  very  large  in  comparison  with 
the  pseudo-bulb*,  which  latter  are  seldom  more  than  about  2  inches 
high,  while  the  flower#  are  from  6  inches  to  7  inches  ^ross  in  the 
best  forms.  Some  cultivators  own  to  a  difficulty  in  flowering 
L.  majaJis,  but  this  is  principally  by  reason  of  the  bulbs  not  being 
well  ripened  after  they  have  done  growing.  It  is  an  Orchid  that 
requires  very  little  shading,  and  should  be  hung  up  close  to  the 
glass  both  winter  and  summer.  The  new  growth*  commence  to 
push  early  in  the  spring,  and  the  plants  ought  at  this  time  to  be 
repotted  if  it  is  necessary. 
