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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER,  January  16,  1902; 
Epidendrum  Lindleyanum. 
Some  years  ago  this  beautiful  species  was  known  under  the 
name  Barkeria  Lindleyana,  and  may  be  still,  in  some  places. 
Since  greater  discoveries  have  been  made  in  the  various  charac¬ 
teristics  of  the  Epidendrums  this,  with  others,  has  been  found  to 
coincide  closely  enough  to  the  required  resembles  in  its  parts 
with  the  older  Epidendrums,  and,  consequently,  has  been  'n- 
cluded  with  them.  As  our  illustration  shows,  it  is  a  graceful  and 
beautiful  flowering  Orchid.  The  erect  stems  are  slender,  and 
from  9in  to  15in  high.  The  flowers  are  rose-purple,  a  rich  and 
very  pleasing  shade  ;  and  are  borne  on  long  terminal  racemes. 
The  lip,  we  should  add,  is  purple-tipped,  and  has  a  white  centre. 
The  species  is  from  Mexico,  and  flowers  in  autumn. 
The  plant  succeeds  best  on  a.  block,  though  it  may  be  grown 
in  a  pot  or  shallow  pan,  but  under  the  former  system  the  most 
satisfactory  results  in  regard  to  the  production  of  flowers'  are 
attained.  It  enjoys  free  ventilation,  abundance  of  water  during 
growth,  and  a  well-marked  season  of -test,  when  very  little  water 
IS  needed,  are  the  chief  points  to  which  attention  should  be 
directed. 
The  Week’s  Cultural  Notes. 
Everyone  admirer  the  Phalsenopsids  or  Moth  Orchids,  the 
beauty  of  the  individual  flowers  and  tlie  grace  of  the  racemes 
being  alike  unquestioned,  but  unfortunately  by  no  means  every¬ 
one  manages  to  cultivate  them  well.  Just  now  there  will  be 
many  specimens  showing  a  yellow  tinge  on  the  leaves ;  some 
ma.y  have  dropped,  and  others  will  appear  so  loose  at  the  leaf 
axils  that  they  are  sure  to  go  a  little  later  on  in-  the  season, 
when  growth  again  becomes  active. 
The  inexperienced  cultivator  in  some  cases  may  call  in  the 
local  expert  in  Orchids,  or  ask  someone  else,  who  at  once  advises 
repotting.  To  those  about  to  repot  or  rebasket  Phalaenopsis 
now  my  advice  is  an  emphatic  "Don’t.”  The  injury  to  the 
foliage  probably  occurred  during  the  past  autumn  or  late 
summer,  and  no  repotting  can  now  put  it  right.  It  will  only 
rtiake  matters  worse,  so  leave  them  alone,  and  if  a  leaf  or  two 
gives  way  look  ujron  the  decreased  size  of  the  plants  as  philoso¬ 
phically  as  possible,  and  endeavour  to  do  better  next  year. 
The  roots  just  now  are  very  inactive,  consequently,  if  disturbed 
they  would  be  long  before  they  took  to  the  new  layers  of 
compost;  keep  them  on  the  dry  side,  and  they  will  begin  to 
look  for  moisture  when  the  plants  most  need  it.  Then  is  the 
time  to  give  it  to  them,  and  also  to  rejjot  when  the  ends  of 
the  roots  are  green  and  active. 
Many  of  the  Cypripediums,  on  the  other  hand,  may  with 
advantage  be  repotted  now  or  very  soon.  The  roots  of  these 
are  not  so  delicate,  and  are,  moreover,  less  likely  to  be  injured 
by  disturbance.  In  repotting  a  healthy  Cypripedium  one  need 
never  be  afraid  to  pull  the  roots  about  a  little.  The  young  and 
vigorous  ones  will  easily  get  over  this,  while  the  old  and  decayed 
oness  need  not  he  considered.  The  latter,  in  fact,  should  be 
cut  away  with  a  siiarp  knife,  as  they  are  usele,ss  to  the  plant, 
and  by  their  decay  are  apt  to  contaminate  healthy  ones. 
When  repotting,  spread  the  roots  out  regularly,  and  work 
the  compost  down  between  them,  not  alloA\'ing  them  to  be 
bunched  up  together.  The  compost  for  most  of  these  plants 
should  corxtain  a  good  pepentage  of  fibry  loam,  especially  that 
for  C.  insigne,  C.  Spicerianum ,  and  similar  kinds.  They  need 
not  be  elevated  above  the  rims  unless  they  happen  to  be  weak 
or  poorly  rooted  specimens,  and,  unlike  most  Orchid  roots,  those 
of  Cypripediums  may  be  watered  freely  a  dav  or  two  after  re¬ 
potting. — H.  R.  R. 
- - 
Slia.de  Trees  VSTa.nted  for  London* 
The  suggestion  in  a  daily  contemporary  is  a  good  one.  The 
hint  IS  once  again  repeated  to  the  Metropolitan  Borough  Councils 
that  “Combined  action  might  w-ell  be  taken  to  beautify  the 
streets  of  London  in  an  effective  yet  simple  and  inexpensiv^e 
)^^y).by  planting  trees  in  the  wider  thoroughfares.”  An  attempt 
IS  being  made  to  improve  the  appearance  of  Blackfriars  Road  in 
this  way.  M  here  trees  would  not  interfere  with  vehicular  and 
pedestrian  traffic,  they  are  the  best  form  of  ornamentation 
Imagine  how  much  more  ornate  Whitehall,  Trafalgar  Square, 
xv6g€‘nt  Stioet,  and  Oxford  Stroot  \\'Ould  bo  if  tlio  rows  of  brick 
and  mortar  were  relieved  by  lines  of  trees.  The  principle  might 
be  extended  to  the  suburbs,  but  the  aim  of  the  jerry  builder 
appears  to  be  to  destroy  every  tree  wffiich  comes  in  his  w^ay. 
Landscape  Gardening.* 
(Continued  from  page  578,  last  volume). 
When  at  Combe  Abbey  in  1861,  the  late  William,  Earl  of 
Craven,  showed  me  a  great  book  on  landscape  gardening, 
the  title  of  which  I  cannot  now  correctly  give.  As  far  as  I 
remember,  it  would  be  about  2ft  square  or  thereabouts.  It 
contained  garden  sketches  of  many  of  the  great  mansions 
of  England.  They  were,  every  one  of  them,  from  beginning 
to  end  of  the  book,  exactly  of  the  same  formal  or  Dutch, 
style — all  laid  out  in  squares  or  angles,  with  hedged-in 
enclosures  and  straight  lines  of  avenues  of  trees,  with  the 
exception  of  some  of  the  latter  still  remaining.  I  could  not 
trace  a  vestige  of  even  the  remnant  of  such  laid-out  pleasure 
gaidens,  and  yet  these  gardens,  if  ever  they  existed,  must 
have  been  designed  and  laid  out  long  subsequent-  to  the 
demolition  of  the  Abbey  by  Henry  VIII.,  as  the  house  when 
first  I  saw  it  in  1861,  corresponded  exactly  with  the  picture 
of  it  in  that  book.  A  figure  of  the  same  you  may  see  affixed 
in  the  left-hand  lower  comer  of  the  plan  of  those  gardens  laid 
out  by  me,  and  now,  along  with  other  of  my  work,  on  the 
table  before  you. 
Brown,  as  we  have  already  said,  pursued  and  practised 
successfully  that  graceful,  free,  and  easy  style  of  landscape^ 
gardening  which  has  been  cleverly  followed  up  with  more 
or  less  of  emendation  by  the  younger  school  of  garden 
artists.  Amongst  many  parks  laid  out  by  Brown  mention  is 
made  of  Kew,  Blenheim,  Combe  Abbey,  &c.  At  Combe,. 
Brown  did  not  find  much  of  the  natural  capabilities  he 
always  looked  out  for  when  called  upon  to  advise  about  the 
improving  of  a  place,  but  w’hat  Brown  could  not  find  he 
created.  Here  he  formed  a  magnificent  piece  of  water, 
eighty  acres  more  or  less,  wh  ch  has  always  been  well  stocked 
with  a  good  variety  of  freshwater  fish.  The  great  mistake 
belonging  to  the  formation  of  this  lake  was  in  allowing  a 
dirty,  muddy  stream  to  pass  through  it,  when  a  by-pass  could 
have  been  easily  made  to  send  the  stream  another  way,  and 
this  without  any  serious  engineering  difficulties.  The  con¬ 
sequence  is  a  great  breadth  of  the  pool  at  the  end  nearest 
to  the  house,  and  nearest  to  the  inffow,  is  silted  up  and  over¬ 
grown  with  no  end  of  aquatic  and  lake  shore  plants.  The  ■ 
yeaily  growth  and  decay  of  such  vegetation  has  created  a 
malarial  swamp,  which  should  be  avoided  by  all  sensible- 
persons.  The  removal  of  this  mud  would,  of  course,  be  only 
a  matler  of  £  s.  d.,  but  costing  probably  quite  as  much  as 
did  the  original  formation  of  that  part  of  the  pool ;  but  it 
would  be  absolute  folly  to  spend  money  to  do  this  until  the 
course  of  the  river  was  diverted.  Besides  the  formation  of 
the  pool,  which,  together  with  the  gardens,  are'  the  chief 
charms  of  the  place.  Brown  very  much  improved  the  park 
by  sui rounding  it  as  far  as  he  could  with  shelter  belts  of 
p’antat  on,  and  also  by  planting  groves  and  clumps  of  trees 
judiciously  dotted  here  and  there,  so  that  much  credit  is 
due  to  Brown  for  having  made  so  much  of  a  place  lying  so 
low — as  its  name  implies — and  possessing  so  few  natural  i 
capabilities,  as  Brown  himself  expresses  it. 
Brown  and  Loudon. 
Before  and  after  the  time  of  Browm’s  improvements,  there 
must  have  lived  at  Combe  one  or  more  Lord  Cravens  who 
nteiested  themselves  considerably  in  tree  planting,  as  we 
find  when  Loudon  visited  the  place  years  after,  collecting 
material  for  his  “  Arboretum  Britannicum,”  a  most  valuable 
work  even  at  the  present  day,  w^e  find  him  making  note  of 
sundry  trees  which  he  evidently  thought  deserving  of  men¬ 
tion,  either  for  their  rarity  in  those  days,  or  for  their  goodly 
size.  The  names  of  some  of  these  trees  are  as  follows  :  — 
Finns  sylvestris,  100  years  planted,  70ft  high,  3ft  9in  in 
diameter.  Of  these  there  were  four  in  my  time  standing 
near  to  each  other.  One  went  quite  dead  in  1881  ;  when 
felled  it  was  found  to  be  as  hollow  as  a  gun  barrel  all  the 
way  up.  Another,  the  largest,  was  broken  over  above 
ground  in  that  ever  memorable  gale  of  Sunday,  March  24, 
1895.  This  tree  was  also  rotten  at  heart,  and  evidently 
going  hollow’  like  the  other.  In  1898  another  went  dead 
whilst  standing  upright.  There  was  only  one  left  alive  when 
I  came  away  in  that  year.  Cedars  of  Lebanon,  47ft  high, 
the  diameter  of  trunk  4ft,  head  80ft.  Some  of  the  finest  of' 
*  A  lecture  delivered  by  Mr.  William  AIii.leb,  F.E.H.S.,  land¬ 
scape  gardener  and  nurseryman,  Berkswell,  before  the  Birmingham 
and  Midland  Counties  Gardeners’  Mutual  Improvement  Association 
November  4th,  1901. 
