The Scientific Notebooks of German Orchidologist Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Kränzlin

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 flowerspikes 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.