August  30,  1900. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
19:i 
Laelio-Cattleya  Hermione. 
On  the  occasion  of  the  meeting  of  the  various  committees  of  the  Royal 
(Horticultural  Society  at  the  Drill  Hall  on  August  14th,  several  plants 
were  shown  for  certificates  or  awards  of  merit.  Amongst  those 
specially  honoured  only  two  received  first-class  certificates,  these  being 
.‘Laelio-Cattleya  Hermione  and  Nepenthes  Sir  William  Thiselton  Dyer, 
iboth  of  which  came  from  Messrs.  J.  Veitch  &  Sons,  Ltd.,  Chelsea.  The 
Jiew  bigener  was  the  centre  of  a  considerable  amount  of  attention,  and 
to  the  light,  the  grow'th  matures  well,  and  so  free  flowering  is  it  that 
on  a  number  of  the  plants  the  small  tips  of  one  season’s  growths  only 
had  all  their  attendant  spikes.  'satiigi 
Insects  and  Orchids. 
I  have  latterly  been  visiting  several  collections  of  Orchids, 
none  of  them  of  any  great  size,  in  various  parts  of  the  country, 
and  have  on  several  occasions  been  surprised  at  the  amount  ot 
carelessness  that  goes  on  with  regard  to  insect  pests  of  different 
kinds.  Not  only  is  this  the  case  with  regard  to  amateur  growers 
who  cultivate  a  few  plants  for  their  own  amusement,  but  gardeners 
;  in  fairly  large  private  places*  where  most  phases  of  gardening  are  well 
j  attended  to. 
i  This  is  not  as  it  should  be,  for  the  very  first  thing  necessary  in 
Orchid  culture  is  cleanliness  without  a  doubt.  No  plant,  however 
vigorous  and  healthy  it  may  be  at  first,  can  long  withstand  the  drain 
j  upon  its  resources  that  the  presence  of  insects  entails,  and  Orchids  are 
Fig.  51.— L^LIO-CATTLEYA  HERMIONE. 
a  flower  is  represented  in  fig.  51.  L.-C.  Hermione  resulted  from  a 
cross  between  Cattleya  Luddemanniana  and  Laelia  Perrini,  and  it  is 
particularly  remarkable  for  the  splendid  development  of  the  sepals  and 
petals  and  for  the  richness  of  the  purple  rose  colouration.  The  lip  is 
rather  small,  but  of  splendid  shape;  the  colour  is  rich  velvety 
■crimson  on  the  front  portion,  and  pale  cream  within. 
Dendrobium  phalaenopeis. 
The  Moth  Dendrobium,  as  it  is  popularly  called,  is  one  of  the 
most  truly  ornamental  of  all  Orchids,  and  certainly  nothing  else  in  its 
own  genus  can  approach  it  for  making  a  splendid  autumn  and  early 
winter  show.  I  have  noted  it  in  very  fine  condition  lately  in  one  or 
two  places,  the  earliest  and  finest  batch  of  plants  I  have  seen  being  at 
.‘Shipley  Hall.  The  varieties  seen  have  been  selected  with  care,  some 
of  them  being  very  distinct  and  beautiful. 
One  that  struck  me  as  being  particularly  good  had  about  thirty 
open  flowers  and  buds,  the  former  being  almost  pure  white  in  the 
sepals  and  petals,  with  a  deep  crimson  suffusion  about  the  bases  and 
lips,  a  lovely  plant.  Ample  heat  and  atmospheric  moisture  is  neces¬ 
sary  for  this  fine  kind,  and  the  latter  is  well  arranged  for  by  a  system 
-of  open  tanks  under  the  stages.  The  plants  being  kept  well  up 
no  exception  to  this  rule.  Some,  indeed,  are  very  difficult  to  keep 
clean  unless  one  is  constantly  at  them,  and  among  the  number  may 
be  mentioned  the  lovely  Miltonia  vexillaria. 
This,  in  a  very  large  number  of  instances  is  covered  with  thrips, 
that  sap  the  very  life  of  the  plants  and  leave  unsightly  black  marks 
upon  the  foliage  where  it  does  not  ruin  the  plant  entirely.  If  an 
amateur  grower  gets  hold  of  a  dirty  plant  of  this  he  may  be  excused 
for  not  cleansing  it  very  easily,  but  when  one  sees  such  plants  as 
Cattleyas  and  Laelias  with  the  leaves  all  brown  and  discoloured,  and 
the  young  leads  weak  and  attenuated  from  this  cause,  then  it  is  time 
the  owner  reformed  or  gave  up  Orchid  growing. 
Even  the  species  especially  liable  to  attack  can  be  kept  clean  with 
care,  as  witness  the  hundreds  of  fine  plants  included  in  our  bes't 
collections,  and  with  the  aid  of  recent  methods  of  fumigation  and  the 
advent  of  powerful  yet  c  mparatively  harmless  insecticides  there  is 
no  excuse  for  such  slackness.  I  will  not  go  into  details  here  of  the 
treatment  necessary  for  the  various  kinds  of  insects;  they  have 
frequently  been  given  in  this  column,  and  are  fairly  well  known. 
My  object  in  this  note  is  rather  to  impress  on  cultivators  of  these 
beautiful  plants  the  absolute  necessity  for  cleanliness  in  respect  to 
insect  pests. — H.  R.  R. 
