February  ^14,  1901. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
129 
Birthday  Notes, 
Calanthe  gigas. 
The  accompanying  illustration  and  letterpress  will  probably  meet 
the  requirements  of  “  Surrevite,”  but  if  not  he  must  write  again. 
Emanating  from  Messrs.  J.  Veitch  &  Sons’  establishment,  this  hybrid 
was  on  its  ntroduction  hailed  as  an 
acquisition  by  all  who  saw  it,  and 
teceived  a  first-class  certificate 
from  the  Orchid  Committee  of  the 
Royal  Horticultural  Society.  It 
was  the  result  of  a  cross  between 
C.  Sanderiana  gigantea  and  C.  vestita 
grandiflora.  It  is  bold,  vigorous, 
and  effective,  the  stout  spike 
containing  numerous  handsome 
flowers,  the  sepals  and  petals  of 
which  are  ivory  white,  and  the 
lip  rich  rose. 
Phalaenopsis  Schilleriana  alba. 
It  is  surprising  how  easily  a 
rare  and  very  valuable  plant  may 
be  overlooked  when  shown  with 
a  number  of  others,  some  of 
much  less  value  and  beauty.  At 
the  Drill  Hall  on  Tuesday,  Jan¬ 
uary  29th,  Mr.  Young,  gardener 
to  Sir  Frederick  Wigan,  staged 
a  verjr  handsome  group  of  choice 
Orchids,  among  which  was  a  fine 
cut  spike  of  this  lovely  albino. 
Yet  I  think  it  would  he  well 
within  the  mark  to  say  that  not 
one.  out  of  twenty  of  the  Orchid 
lovers  present  noticed  it,  or  if 
they  did,  gave  a  thought  to  the 
fact  that  n  >t  only  is  it  a  variety 
of  great  beauty,  but  absolutely 
unique,  Sir  Frederick  Wigan’s 
plant  being  the  only  specimen  of 
it  in  Europe. 
Little  wonder  that  only  the 
cut  spike  was  brought  on  such  a 
raw  cold  day,  for  though  great 
care  is  of  course  taken  by  culti¬ 
vators  who  bring  of  their  rarest 
and  choicest  gems  to  these  meet¬ 
ings,  there  is  always  a  risk  with 
such  sensitive  plants  as  Phalse- 
nopsises.  The  whole  of  this 
group,  of  which  particulars  were 
given  in  the  Journal  of  Jan¬ 
uary  31st,  was  very  interesting, 
and  one  cannot  help  expressing 
a  wish  that  amateur  cultivators 
of  means  would  show  more  fre¬ 
quently.  There  would  then  be 
no  opening  for  the  silly  carping 
at  the  nurserymen  who  habitually  help  to  make  these 
successful  by  their  excellent  exhibits  of  Orchids  andj  other  plants 
and  fruits. 
meetings 
Dendrobiutn  Rubens. 
I  have  just  received  a  lovely  truss  of  three  flowers  of  this  very 
choice  hybrid,  one  of  the  finest  Dendrobiums  in  cultivation,  and  a 
most  showy  Orchid.  D.  nobiie  enters  largely  in  its  parentage,  it 
beintr  a  secondary  hybrid  between  D.  splendidissimum  grandiflorum 
and  D.  nobiie  nobilius.  The  influence  of  the  latter  is  plainly  seen  in 
the  de'pening  towards  the  tips  of  the  colour  in  the  outer  segments 
and  the  large,  well-defined  maroon  blotch  on  the  lip.  This  plant  was 
raised  by  Mr.  Cypher  some  years  ago,  and  is  now  fairly  well  established 
in  collections.  The  present  is  a  good  time  to  prepare  for  propagating 
these  rare  and  valuable  forms. — H.  R.  R. 
I  have  been  in  the  habit  for  many  years'of  "senuing  you  a  few 
lines  on  my  birthday.  I  now  write  to  say  that  few  people  could 
have  read  with  greater  interest  and  feeling  than  myselt  on  this  first 
day  of  February  your  description  of  the  memorial  trees  at  Frogmore. 
Would  that  it  hid  not  b  en  written  tor  so  sad  and  mournful  an 
occasion  !  How  familiar,  too,  it  strikes  home  to  me  !  My  wife  was 
born  in  Windsor  Park,  educated  at  the  Queen’s  School,  and,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  your  doyen  was  known  in  his  visiting  days  there¬ 
abouts  to  the  gardeners  at  Frogmore.  Alas  !  their  places  there  now 
know  neither  them  nor  your  old  friend  myself  any  more.  Well,  I 
have  been  a  tree  planter  all  my  life ;  our  late  revered  Sovereign  was 
not  many  months  old  when  I,  quite 
unpremeditatedlv,  dinted  mv  first 
sapling  (see  N<>.  2529,  page  224,  of 
March  18th,  1897).  My  first  pre¬ 
meditated  orchard  I  planted  anno 
1837,  and  I  propose  on  next  Mon¬ 
day,  February  4th  at  4  o’clock  p.m. 
— or  at  the  time  it  is  appointed 
to  place  our  late  beloved  Queen  by 
the  side  of  the  one  she  loved  so 
well,  in  the  mausoleum  at  Frog¬ 
more— a  young  Apple  tree  in  my 
orchard,  the  stock  of  which  I  raised 
from  a  pip,  and  grafted  two  years 
since  with  a  “Queen”  scion,  as 
another  memorial. 
I  have  a  good  collection  of 
memorial  evergreens  and  forest 
trees  about  Cot  age  Farm,  sent  to 
me  by  old  friends  whom  you,  Mr. 
Editor,  knew  very  well,  but  who 
are  now  nearly  all  of  them  passed 
over  to  the  majority,  and  the  very 
best  antidote  I  find  for  sleepless¬ 
ness  is  to  think  I  am  accompanying 
them  around  to  show  them  their 
grown-up  fruitlul  presents.  Cark- 
mg  care  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  will 
disperse  as  a  cloud  before  the  rising 
sun,  and  sleep,  ble.'Sed  sleep,  will 
intervene.  Try  it  ;  and  if  you  will 
care  to  go  to  your  old  fi.es  of  the 
Cottage  Gardener  you  will  find 
there  a  treatise  on  planting,  written 
by  “Upwards  and  Onwards”  in 
the  year  1853,  which  1  am  not  sure 
of  beiDg  quite  acceptable  to  reprint 
at  the  present  day.  At  any  rate, 
how  many  I  may  have  planted,  or 
caused  to  be  planted,  between  the 
interim  of  1819  and  1901  goodness 
only  knows,  but  our  rector,  his 
family,  and  myself  mementoed  the 
old  century  out  and  the  new  cen¬ 
tury  in  by  plantii  g  fruit  and  forest 
trees  in  his  garden  and  upon  his 
glebe. 
I  do  not  intend  further  to  tres¬ 
pass  upon  your  time  and  space  with 
my  uncompleted  works,  furt  her  than 
to  say  I  hope  to  be  in  full  swing 
before  long  amongst  my  new  seed¬ 
ling  Potatoes.  1  have  tine  examples 
from  the  wild  North  American  X 
Fendleri,  and  my  domestic  Red  sorts;  also  from  the  wild  castanium 
from  the  same  latitude.  Here  is  a  judgment  sent  to  me  by  a 
well  known  to  these  pages.  “  Castanium 
but  not  quite  ‘up’  in  flavour  to 
Inter- 
Calanthe  GIGAS. 
very  good  expert,  ,  , 
cross,  also  souud  and  good,  but  not  quite  ‘  up 
your  Suttons’  Ringleader,  still  a  long  lead  in  that  respect  on  inter¬ 
national  and  its  alias— a  fine  hit  for  the  1st.”  Poor  old.  Inter¬ 
national  !  the  for  many  years  best-abused  Potato  in  cultivation. 
I  wonder  how  many  of  the  confiding  British  public  know  how  they 
have  been  gulled  into  partaking  of  thousands  of  tons  of  your 
patronymic,  as  imported  youDg  Potatoes  from  the  Canaries  and 
the  Channel  Islands.  I  ho|  e  nevertheless  to  supersede  my  Inter¬ 
national  for  the  early  markets  by  the  above  (sha!.  I  call  it 
E  I  ward  VII.?),  as  it  is  very  early,  a  better  cropper,  handsome  in 
tuber,  and  dwarf  haulm  withal — a  pollen  cross  trorn  castanium  with 
my  Woodstock  Kidney.  I  have  succeeded  also  with  intercrossing  the 
pollen  of  castanium,  with  the  result  of  my  Rector  of  Woodstock 
