Page 433

December 2, 1882.] THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 717

will soon induce disease, especially if the temperature
of the house gets low, and the latter practice carried
to excess will lead to loss of the foliage at the
base of the plants. Where these have to be grown in
the same house the Vandas must be placed at the
coolest end, as a temperature of 55° to 60° is sufficient
to maintain them in perfect health during the winter.
One of the best winter Orchids now showing flower
is Phaius grandifolius. This should be grown in
quantity, as it is one of the few Orchids that will
stand being used for room decoration without injury.
Where it is used for this purpose it should be prepared
by keeping it cooler for a few days before taking
it into the room, and while there should be kept
drier at the root. Any shy flowering Orchids, such
as Schomburgkia tibicinis, Eriopsis biloba, Epidendrum
bicornutum, and Cyrtopodiums, must be specially
treated at this season of the year, by placing
them on dry elevated shelves, maintaining a dry but
moderately warm atmosphere around them, and

[black and white illustration]
Fig. 127.—CYPRIPEDIUM INSIGNE, VAR. PUNCTATUM VIOLACEUM.

giving only sufficient water at the roots to keep them
from excessive shrivelling. A couple or three months
of this treatment will throughly ripen the bulbs, when
a good show of flower will follow. J. Roberts, Gunnersbury
Park Gardens.

CYPRIPEDIUM INSIGNE PUNCTATUM VIOLACEUM
AND C. INSIGNE MAULEI.—Well known as the
superior merits of the former variety have always been
to the few who have been lucky enough to obtain it
true, so many have expressed an opinion that it is
nothing but C. insigne Maulei that we are glad to
receive from R.P. Percival, Esq., of Birkdale, Southport,
a properly authenicated flower of each, taken
from strong plants grown on precisely the same conditions.
So vastly superior is C. insigne punctatum
violaceum to the other variey that we could not
refrain from having drawings made of them (figs. 126,
127) in order to set the matter to rest once for all.
The variety under notice came to this country as a
stray seedling-like plant among some imported
Orchids in the year 1855; chance and its own distinct

appearance favoured it, and it was carefully
tended. On blooming it amply verified the good
opinion formed of it, as the flowers, although borne
on a small plant, were of a better shape and
more brightly and distinctly marked than those of
any other variety. Mr. O'Brien, in whose care it
was, jealously nursed and guarded it, but it was
not until about the year 1869 that any of it was parted
with, and soon the sale of it had to be stopped, as
Mr. Dominy (who was one of the first to recognise
its merits) and a few more who were waiting for the
plant would soon have taken the stock in spite of the
rather prohibitory prices. The alternate selling and
withholding of the plant according as the stock
increased or decreased no doubt has often caused C.
Maulei to be passed off for it, as indeed in after years,
when C. insigne punctatum violaceum became more
plentiful, it may sometimes have found its way into
gardens as C. Maulei, and hence the confusion. In
small plants the error is not so easily detected, but

when both are grown strong there is scarcely any
comparison, particularly in point of size of flower, as
a glance at our illustrations will prove. The confusion
in the names of this section of C. insigne was
further confounded some few years ago by the introduction
of the variety called Chantinii, which was
nothing but C. insigne Maulei. Although at present
C. insigne punctatum violaceum may sometimes be
found under that name, there is no doubt that C.
insigne punctatum is distinct, and one of the finest of
Cyripediums, and Mr. Percival has no cause to
regret the forty odd guineas he gave for it.

ODONTOGLOSSUM CRISPUM.—In Messrs. Jackson's
collection at Kingston the show of flowers promises
to be unusually fine in a week or two. A good many
of the most vigorous plants are suspended from the
roof of a low span-roofed plant-house, and the flower-
spikes are both strong and plentiful. The varieties
vary a good deal. We noticed one fine variety with
four spikes, and as many as twelve flowers to a spike.
This variety is beautifully marked with clear spots.

O. Andersonianum has two branching spikes; this
variety is sweet-scented, and is extremely vigorous.
Upon the whole the condition of the collection is
remarkably satisfactory, and the show of flowers
about Christmastide will be worth going a long way
to see.

ARPOPHYLLUM GIGANTEUM.—A fine specimen of
this rare Orchid is now showing flower in Messrs.
Jackson's collection at Kingston. It is the same
variety that Mr. Carson used to grow at Nonsuch
Park a dozen or fourteen years ago. It has a broader
leaf, throws up a much finer spike of flower, and
blooms more freely than the small-leaved variety
which is commonly cultivated.

LÆLIA AUTUMNALIS ATRO RUBENS.—Go when
one will be there is always something interesting to be
seen in Messrs. Veitch's Orchid-houses, but a specimen
of the above plant having seven flowers upon
one spike is a sight that excites one's admiration for
these flowers to the highest degree. The flowers are
of a purple hue, the labellum being of a rather deeper
purple than the sepals and petals, and the throat is
white.

SOPHRONITES GRANDIFLORA.—Whoever thinks of
cultivating Orchids should make this pretty little
plant one of their first purchases. This is the natural
season for the plant to flower, and its scarlet blooms
are the brightest objects in the Orchid-house at the
present season.

SACCOLABIUM BLUMEI.—Messrs. Heath & Son,
Exotic Nurseries, College Road, Cheltenham, have
kindly forwarded me an unusually grand, and at the
same time very curious, inflorescence of this plant.
The superior half of the flower has nota single petal,
all the flowers being trisepalous, and with a lip not
superior to that organ in the petalliferous flowers. It
belongs to the Saccolabium macrostachyum, Lindl.
Finally, we may learn whether those things are constant
or merely varieties of one protean type. H.G.
Rchb. f.

DENDROBIUM LEECHIANUM ×.—From Mr.
Swan, gr. to W. Leech, Esq., Fallowfield, Manchester,
come several blooms of this free-flowering and
very desirable hybrid, which was figured and
described at p. 256 of our last volume. A spike of
four flowers, Mr. Swan informs us, was taken from a
bulb that has produced eighteen blossoms, yet which
is little more than 1 foot in height. The stock of
plants at Oakley consists of eighteen, which are either
in bloom or showing flower; and though some of the
flowers before us have been open five weeks, they are
still bright and fresh. A fine spike of the lovely
Calanthe Veitchii superba also came to hand in the
same box.

ODONTOGLOSSUM LUTEO-PURPUREUM (Lindl.)
RADIATUM (Rchb. f.)—A very charming specimen of
this is in flower just now with Messrs. Heath & Son,
Exotic Nurseries, College Road, Cheltenham. An
old bulb produced twin bulbs, and between the two
stands a very fine deeply coloured inflorescence, the
flowers being of very strong good texture. It would
be interesting to know (of course I got but a sketch
and half the inflorescence) whether in all probability
the peduncle belongs to one of the bulbs, or whether
it is the product of an especial break which would
be quite georgeous. H. G. Rchb. f.

PHALÆNOPSIS, with which one house at Rendlesham
is mostly occupied, continue to thrive admirably;
the house in which they are grown, like the others
devoted to Orchid culture at Rendlesham is a low
span, constructed so as to give all the light possible, and
standing away from everything that could intercept
it. The plants are hung well up to the roof, with air
on at all times in all weathers; it is admitted freely
through openings in the walls at both sides, beneath
the side stages. The temperature as near as may be
is kept at 70° in the night in summer, and 65° by
night during winter. Under such treatment the
leaves attain more than ordinary substance, lasting
proportionately long. All the kinds seem to do well.
Of Phalaenopsis amabilis|P. amabilis]], P. grandiflora, and P. Schilleriana,
there are numbers of splendid examples; the largest,
P. grandiflora, is just upon 2 feet from point to point
of the leaves. The scarce P. Portei has six good
leaves, the biggest 9 inches long, by 3 3/4 broad.
Cattleya superbiens, hung up in the same house
close to the roof, keeps on year after year blooming
freely, and gaining additional strength. A
couple of plants of Vanda Denisoniana are doing
finely. T. B.