ENPages That Mention Dendrobium
[Descriptions of orchid genera] [manuscript], 1880-1908. Manuscript 09
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754 THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. [DECEMBER 10, 1881.
Orchid Notes. WORK IN THE HOUSES.--Whilst the present exceedingly mild weather continues the houses can be kept at their proper temperature with little anxiety on the part of those who have charge of the fires. There can be no doubt that with such weather out-of-doors the treatment now being given is much better for the plants than when there is heavy snow on the ground, and a continuance of severe frosts for days and nights together. Still whilst it is so mild, the thermometer may safely indicate a few degrees higher than it would be wise to keep if much firing were now being used. The object now, let the weather be what it may, is to induce many to remain in a state of rest, or but slight growth; it will not do, therefore, by excessive heat unduly to excite any into growth, or to hasten on the blooming period. There are always among the cool Orchids some pushing-up flower-spikes, or starting again into growth, and the difference of treatment these require at any period of the year is comparatively slight when the other sections are taken into consideration. These must not be drived off in a bulk, though a partial rest after blooming must be individually encouraged by a slight withholding of water; and so, whatever the season may be, the treatment in this section will be a careful and consistent round of a regular and uniform character, bearing in mind the requirements of indviduals. The temperatures of the houses in the early morning, at 7 A.M., should now be as near the following figures as possible : — East India-house, 60[degrees]; Dendrobium-house, 58[degrees]; Cattleya-house, 55[degrees]; Odontoglossum-house, 50[degrees] to 53[degrees]. If the Phalænopsis, and a few recently imported East India plants, are placed in a separate divisiion, it may range a little higher; but if less air is given it will cause this department to be a little warmer and closer, and will answer the same purpose. When it is practicable, give air on all occasions, especially to the Odontoglossum-house; with the glass outside ranging from 40[degrees] to 50[degrees], little fear need be felt that any harm will follow. The rare and distinct Vanda Cathcarti, where it has been secured, should now be well advanced with flower spikes. This generally commences to show as early as August and September, and the spike and buds come slowly on until the flowers expand by Christmas, or sometimes not till January is far advanced. The flowers last a long time, which is some compensation for the lenght of time one has to wait for their appearance. This will in some cases grow as free as can possibly be desired; in other instances it is just as difficult to manage. One cause of this I believe to be that it is grown in too much heat. This encourages yellow thrips, and once this pest has settled upon it it seems to have the plant completely in its power. The leaves being of a thin papery texture are soon disfigured, and must be cut away; smoking or dipping must then be resorted to, and repeated if the first operation is not successful. The coolest end of the East India-house, where it can have plenty of light, will suit it best. Being a quick grower naturally, it doubtless soon lifts its head above the plants or foliage at its base, and reaching upward it would therefore enjoy an abundance of light. It is also much benefited when growing by being syringed overhead morning and evening, and is most at command when grown in a pot. Among the late additions to the Dendrobium few were distributed more quietly than the singular-growing Findleyanum, and probably not one has given more pleasure, or caused greater surprise, than this. At first, with many growers, it did not appear very deserving, but now it is admitted to be a most beautiful species—very free in blooming, the flowers of fine size, and the colours soft and pleasing. This is best managed in baskets, and during the summer grows very quickly. It flowers on the new growths whilst the leaves, in some instances, are still upon the bulbs; but if these miss blooming the first year they will generally do so the second. It will now be showing flower along its knotted bulbs, and will soon prove it is worthy of all the care that has been bestowed upon it. Wherever it can be obtained it should be added to the collection without delay. Another choice thing of recent introduction is Maxillaria grandiflora. This succeeds best in a pot, in peat and sphagnum, and, grown in the Cattleya-house during the summer, it will have made stout bulbs and leaves, and will now be flowering from the base of the newly formed bulbs. Its erect showy blooms rival in some respects the rare Lycaste Skinneri alba, and should
be represented in the collection by more than a single specimen. Miltonia spectabilis, virginalis, rosea, Moreliana, &c., will now be pushing new growths. Pick out the old peaty soil, and top-dress them with some fresh sphagnum and peat, using some crocks among the soil. Do not shake them out unless it is absolutely necessary, as they do not like to be often disturbed; it causes the leaves to turn yellow and fall off, and the plants become weaker in a very perceptible manner. The Cattleya-house will suit these, as well, too, the taller growers, as Clowesii, Regnelli and its variety purpurea; candida grandiflora requires a little more heat than any of them. W. Swan, Fallowfield.
ORCHID SEEDS. I am not sure that the instructions given at p. 733 are quite sufficient for a beginner in the field of raising seedlings. It would depend very much upon how or where the living sphagnum was placed before I should care to trust Orchid seeds on it. If they were sown on a pot or pan of luxuriant living sphagnum I would not expect to see a plant come up. The method usually pursued, and which I have found successful, is this. For instance, if the seeds to be sown are those of a Cypripedium I would select a plant of the same species as one of the parents that had been potted some time—say six months; and I would prefer one that had not too much living sphagnum about it. The surface where the seeds are to be sown should be one of bits of charcoal, tufts of fibrous peat and potsherds, with live sphagnum at intervals. The seed-pods will riper on the plant, and the seed should be sown as soon as the pods open. The seed, which resembles very much the dust in the sunbeams, should be shaken out on to the surface; and if there are any thick roots on the surface the seeds may vegetate on them, and nowhere else (at least, I had an experience of that kind once). I merely took the Cypripedium as an illustration, but it is a fact that the best way to rear seedling Orchids is to sow the seeds on the surface of the compost on which other plants of the same kind are growing. There are, however, such an enormous number of seeds in a pod that it is easy to try them in various ways. I think it was the late Mr. Donald Beaton who sowed Orchid seeds in rather an eccentric manner; but he was successful in raising plants, which was the first point gained, although he stated at the same time that he never reared one. Mr. Beaton filled a flower-pot with water, in which were some good-sized lumps of charcoal; his fingere were held over the hold in the bottom of the pot. The seeds were then sown on the surface of the water, the finger was withdrawn, and the water rushed out, leaving the seeds attached to the charcoal, which was kept moist afterwards. In this way he raised a large number of plants; but it takes a long time before they are ready to be pricked off, and they did not derive sufficient sustencance from the charcoal to bring them on to that stage. J. D.
ORCHIDS IN FLOWER AT GLASNEVIN On December 1 there were sixty-one species and varieties of Orchids in flower here, and of these thirty-one were in flower on November 1. The following is a list of them:— [two columned table]
PILUMNA FRAGRANS This is one of the choicest Orchids we have for flowering this season. Mr. Low has also a large importation coming into flower; and as the flowersopen the plants are arranged in two sections. The large-flowered variety is grown under the name of P. nobilis. Why it should be elevated to the rank of a distinct species merely because the flowers are larger does not seem to be so easy to answer. P. fragrans nobilis it ought to be, if a distinctive name is necessary. The large-flowered variety is the best certainly, although both ought to be grown in every collection. The sweetly-scented flowers are of teh most delicate white, with a lemon or yellow mark at the base of the labellum. This is also a free-growing plant, and should be potted like Cattleya Mossiae. It favours either the cool or Cattleya-house. J. Douglas.
MR. BULL'S COLLECTION. The following are now in flower at Mr. William Bull's establishment, King's Road, Chelsea, S.W.:— [two columned table]
ONCIDIUM CHEIROPHORUM. In entering one of the Orchid-houses in Messrs. Low's nursery at Clapton, the other day, the visitor might observe what seemed to be a bed of the dwarf yellow Wallflower coming into bloom, but on a closer inspection it was found to be a quantity of exceedingly healthy plants of O. cheirophorum; many spikes are fully opened, and numbers more are coming on to succeed them. The flowers open pale yellow, and when fully opened they are of a golden-yellow, and most sweetly scented. Mr. Low grows this in quite a cool house, and I saw it doing well since in one with a night temperature ranging from 60[degrees] to 65[degrees]. Now that there are large importations of this it may soon beomce an inmate of most Orchid-houses. J. D.ORCHIDS IN MIXED COLLECTIONS: FERGUSLIE. Mr. Williams, in the Orchid Album for last month gives a very just and appreciative notice of the Orchids grown by Mr. Thomson at Ferguslie, the seat of T. Coates, Esq., and remarks that they were not grown in a house or houses specially set apart for them, but in houses mixed up with stove and finefoliaged plants. My reason for noticing this is, that I remarked the same success attended similar treatment of Orchids by the late Mr. Ingram, at Alnwick Castle. I saw them last autumn, and never saw plants in more robust health grown in a large plant-stove, with fine-foliaged and other stove plants. The Dendrobiums were quite remarkable
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[3 pencil sketches] Taenioph. Kube & v. Hasselt
[1 pencil sketch] (Dendrob) Taeniophyll. (algosum.) Java Jr. Rein- wand.
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342 THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. [MARCH 11, 1882.
refer Limatodes rosea to the genus Calanthe, hence, if this view be correct, a hybrid between the former and C. vestita is no very extraordinary phenomenon. In these instances it appears to have been proved that the supposed differences in the pollen did not exist, therefore there can be no justification for establishing new genera, and placing them in different places in the system. But now with reference to the value of vegetative characters in classification it seems pretty clear that, although the great divisions of flowering plants (dicotyledons and monocotyledons) are with some few exceptions distinguishable from each other by evident vegetative characters, yet generally speaking vegetative characters cannot be employed in teh successive divisions until we come to the subdivision of genera. Judging from Dr. Pfitzer's results this holds good for Orchids, as well as other families of plants. We are not losing sight of the fact that certain orders, sub-orders, and tribes are characterised by habit as well as floral affinities. But very little investigation teaches us that certain vegetative types—physiognomical types, they might be designated—are repeated in numberous natural orders of teh most distant affinities, showing that they are the outcomes of external conditions, such as climate, medium, and associations. We must, however, be careful to distinguish between purely physiognomical modifications of vegetative organs, and those that coincide with or accompany the genetic affinities. Dr. Pfitzer recognises the fact that certain vegetative Orchid types are repeated in genera possessing widely different floral structure; but he also states that his primary vegetative characters are genetic rather than physiognomical. He primarily divides Orchids into those which grow continuously in one direction (monopodial), and those in w hich the growth is arrested at one point and continued from another (sympodial). These definitions, if not absolutely exact, are sufficiently so for all practical purposes. Monopodial Orchids have stems which lengthen indefinitely at the tip, season after season, and bear lateral inflorescences, as in Aërides Schrœderi (see fig. 51). In sympodial Orchids the growth of the main axis soon ceases, usually at the end of the growing period, and a lateral shoot continues the further development. The first is a comparatively small group, comprising, as far as at present known, most of Bentham's sub-tribe Sarcantheæm the American genus Dichæa, of the sub-tribe Maxillarieæ, and the widely-spread Neottineous genus Vanilla. The genera Vanda, Renanthera, Sarcanthus, Aërides, and Phalænopsis, belong here, and mostly inhabit Africa and Asia. The sympodial Orchids are again divided into two groups, the Pleuranthæ, and the Acanthæ—in other words, into those having lateral inflorescences, ad Dendrobium, Oncidium, and Angræcum Scottianum (fig. 52), but not in other Angræcums, and those in which the inflorescence terminates the stems, as in Epidendrum, Cypripedium, and Cattleya (fig. 53). For further particulars we must again refer the reader to the abstract, ante, vol xiv, n.s., p. 750. That abstract, or key, has a somewhat formidable appearance, but it is very simple when we know that the plan of its construction is a succession of contrasted characters. Thus, in tracing out the affinity of a plant, supposing it has not the character of I., we pass on to II., and under that, if it has not a lateral inflorescence, as defined under A., we pass to B., and so on. Incomplete as it is, the key contains a vast deal of information respecting the vegetative organs of Orchids in a spall space; and, although in no case do the primary and secondary divisions correspond to the whole of a tribe or trives, yet the ternary division leads us to the Ophrydeæ and the Neottineæ, and, what is of more importance, to large genera. But, as we have already stated, we anticipate greater usefulness from the characters afforded by the vegetative organs inthe subdivision of genera and in the description of species. Practised nurserymen are able to distinguish species and varieties of shrubs and trees by their vegetative characters to an extent that seems unattainable to the beginner, but such knowledge could never be learnt from a book, even if it could be put into words, and it is not likely that descriptive vegetative characters alone will lead to the identification of Orchids. We have little space left to notice Dr. Pfitzer's concluding chapters on the habitats and mode of life, &c., of Orchids, &c., but it may be mentioned that one of the points upon which he most strongly insists is, that Orchids, with comparatively few exceptions, love the sun, and would
thrive better under cultivation were they not shaded so much. In the circumscription of teh genera Dr. Pfitzer follows Mr. Bentham, but it would have been better in the references to have cited the names employed in the places to which reference is made. Thus at p. 21 we are referred to the Gard. Chron., n.s., i., p. 478, for the dimensions of a plant of Stauropsis lissochiloides, Benth., which is very perplexing, if the reader has overlooked the fact, recorded at p. 14, that Vanda Batemani (Fieldia lissochiloides) is a synonym as that is the name used in the place referred to. In the same way Vanda Cathcartii becomes Arachnanthe Cathcartii; and in the index Blume's genus Arachnanthe is inadvertently attributed to Reichenbach. Vanda Lowei )Renanthera Lowei) should also have been referred to Arachnanthe. One word with regard to the title of the book. As it stands it is misleading, and needs the qualification expressed by the words "of the vegetative organs." The work is copiously illustrated with woodcuts, most of which have appeared in these columns, and of which due acknowledgement is made. W. B. Hemsley.
FIG. 52.—ANGRÆCUM SCOTTIANUM. An example of a sympodial Orchid; the main stem here ends in an inflorescence which bends downwards, and so appears opposite to a leaf (not in the axil), while the originally side-shoot becomes terminal, and continues to grow in the direction of the main stem.
HOME CORRESPONDENCE.
Continental Express Parcel Post.—Some of us have been looking forward to this as likely to give long-desired facilities for getting a rapid delivery of parcels of fresh plants from distant parts of Europe. I may say that it is an arrangement concerted between the cheife European Continental states, by which parcels under 10 lb. in weight should be carried at a cheap rate as quickly as letters, and that it came into operation on the first day of this year. But nothing seems to have been done in England to enable us to derive any advantage from the arrangement. A parcel stated on the addres to be plants, and requiring immediate delivery, was sent to me from Erfurt last week. It seems that the English agents for the Continental Parcel Post are not, as one would hope, the Post-office authorities, nor any large railway company, but a firm of private carriers. The parcel was handed over to them fully and very legibly addressed to me; it was then forwarded to the local agent of these private carriers, a woman who keeps a small fancy shop at a country town 9 miles distant from me. She wrote to me by post saying a parcel had arrived for me from Germany which I might
have by sending for it and paying the carriage. I finally got it when it had been in her keeping for three days. C. Wolley Dod, Edge Hall, Malpas, March 2.
Stephanotis in Fruit.—We have a plant of Stephanotis floribunda that has been planted out for several years, and has always flowered freely, but never till now has borne fruit. It has one about the size of a turkey's egg, and like a Plum in shape. I shall be glad to know whether any of your correspondents have ever fruited it. [Yes; many of them. ED.] J. Baylis, Leiston Old Abbey, Suffolk.
To Prevent Birds from Eating Fruit-Buds. —Reading Mr. Grieve's excellent article on the Gooseberry in your last issue it occurred to me to make known to you the plan I adopt here to preserve the buds of Gooseberries, Currants, and Plums from the depredations of birds. As soon as the attack on the buds begins the whole of teh bushes and trees are at once pruned, and a large quantity of limewash is prepared sufficiently thin to admit of its passing through a course syringe. With this a man follows the pruners, squirty it plentifully over both bushes and trees. If done on a dry day it dries in two hours, and no
amount of rain will the wash it off, neither will any bird even perch on bush or tree. Four years ago this winter I walked about gun in hand from morn till eve day after day to keep the bullfinches in check, as I had planted a great many young bushes and Plum trees; but the birds, in spite of me, cleared every bush, so that they were only skeletons when spring came. Ever since I have used limewash, as stated above, and have no trouble in securing immunity from birds. W. Armstrong, Ford Manor.
Pendell Court.—Amongst the many novelties in the houses at Pendell Court Sir. G. Macleay's), Bletchingley, worthy of notice now, is a fine specimen of Coffea arabica, about 9 feet high and 6 feet through, which is bearing a fine crop of berries, some of the shoots having over fifty berries, which come in threes and fours from the axils of the leaves. Also a grand specimen of the noble Platycerium grande, which measures over 5 feet in diameter, and is in splendid condition. The lovely Canna iridiflora, var. Ehemanni, is still in flower; it is nearly 10 feet high, and has fine spikes of its bright crimson flowers; it has been in bloom over seven months. The rare and beautiful fine cut-leaved Anemone capensis is just opening its flowers; a new Asplenium pterioides is very distinct, and will prove to be a lovely greenhouse