Part 13
The Princess of Wales’ Odontoglossum, one of the most beautiful and one of the most useful of Orchids, was found in the province of Bogota, in New Grenada, at an altitude of from 7,000 to 8,000 feet, growing in great profusion on the branches of trees in the forests of that elevated region. It was introduced to this country in 1864 by Mr. Weir, when collecting for the Royal Horticultural Society, and was described in that year by Mr. Bateman as above quoted. There cannot be two opinions respecting its beauty, as it is one of the best Orchids in cultivation; and though there are amongst the imported plants great diversities in the form and colour of the flowers, yet all are beautiful. Some have the flowers of a pure white, in others they are variously suffused with a delicate rosy hue; some are spotted with crimson, and there are those with yellow flowers, but the most chaste and beautiful of them all are the pure white varieties, tinted with rose colour, which are mostly sought after by cultivators, though the many beautifully spotted forms produce a fine contrast when intermixed with the others.
The figure we now publish was taken from a well-grown specimen in the collection of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, at Sandringham, and, as this species is named in honour of the Princess of Wales, who is a great lover of flowers, and especially of the Orchidaceæ, we are proud to be able to announce that our artist has been permitted to prepare an illustration of this charming plant from such a source. There is a very fine collection of these plants at Sandringham, and among them are some very fine specimens, the accomplished gardener, Mr. C. Penny, being most successful in flowering them with grand spikes of bloom. There are also numerous varieties in the collection, but the one we have figured is a good example of the typical form.
_Odontoglossum Alexandræ_ is a compact-growing plant, attaining about a foot in height; it is furnished with lively green foliage, and produces its blossoms after the growth is completed on a drooping spike which, as it overhangs the green foliage, has a most graceful appearance. The sepals are white, slightly tinged with pale rose colour, the petals are pure white, and the lip is white, with reddish-brown spots upon it, and a patch of bright orange-yellow at the base. The plants bloom at different times of the year, according to the period of the completion of their growth, and, therefore, by having a good quantity of plants, a succession may be kept flowering all the year round. We are never without a good show of these plants in bloom, and it is the same in all collections where they are grown in considerable numbers. The individual flowers will last many weeks in beauty. They are extremely useful for cutting, as they keep for a long time in water.
As this species requires what is called cool treatment very little expense need be incurred in its cultivation. Indeed, any one having a small house where a temperature can be kept up in winter of from 45° to 50°, with as little fire-heat as possible, can grow a great quantity of them, since they occupy but little space. In summer no fire-heat is required, unless the nights are cold, which is seldom the case at that season, but no draughts should be allowed to reach them, as draughts are as deleterious to them as to all other plants grown in glass houses. They require shading from the scorching rays of the sun, but like to have all the light that can be given them. Under this treatment they will grow stronger and stronger, and flower more and more freely.
The potting material which we find most suitable for them is good fibrous peat, with the finer earthy particles shaken out; they must have good drainage, in fact the pots must be three-parts filled with drainage material, and the plants well elevated above the pot rim. They are naturally free-rooting plants, but we find a little live sphagnum moss on the top of the peat causes them to root more freely, and as they require a good deal of moisture at the roots during their period of growth, the moss, if kept in a growing condition, will help to supply their wants.
VANDA CŒRULESCENS. [Plate 48.] Native of Burmah.
Epiphytal. _Stem_ one to two feet high or more, producing long stout flexuous roots from the leaf bases. _Leaves_ close set, distichous, linear-ligulate, truncately-bilobed, coriaceous, channelled, five to seven inches long, of a deep green colour, carinate, the keel forming an angular projection at the tip. _Scapes_ or _Peduncles_ slender, distantly vaginate, with small appressed sheaths, axillary, erect, bearing a ten to twenty flowered raceme longer than the leaves. _Flowers_ neat and very pleasing, pale mauve-blue; _sepals_ incurved, cuneate-ovate, obtuse, clawed, of a pale greyish blue; _petals_ similar in size, form, and colour, twisted at the base, with the two lateral lobes tawny-yellow, and adnate to the column, the middle or front lobe obcuneate dilated and emarginate at the apex, the margins deflexed, of a rich violet-blue, with a pair of keel-shaped deep violet calli and a short intermediate one on the disk, the spur straight or incurved, conical, tipped with green. _Column_ small, blue.
Vanda cœrulescens, _Griffith_, _Notulæ_, 352; _Id._, _Icones_, t. 331; _Lindley_, _Folia Orchidacea_, art. _Vanda_, No. 19; _Reichenbach fil._, in _Walpers’ Annales Botanices Systematicæ_, vi., 868; _Id._, in _Gardeners’ Chronicle_, 1869, 498; 1870, 529, fig. 97; _Hooker fil._, _Botanical Magazine_, t. 5834 (colour faulty); _Williams_, _Orchid Grower’s Manual_, ed. 5, 305.
The Vandas are a most noble family of Orchids, including amongst them many beautiful species, such as _V. suavis_, _V. tricolor_, _V. Batemanni_, and others. They are well furnished with leaves, and make splendid specimens, requiring considerable space in which to grow them, but they are plants of great beauty, and when not in bloom make grand objects of attraction. No collection should be without them, as they flower at all times of the year. Where a number of these Orchids are grown, as at Chatsworth, we have seen as many as 193 spikes in blossom at one time, presenting a most glorious sight.
The Vandas are of easy cultivation. The species which we now figure is a small, elegant-growing, free-blooming plant, and also very distinct in character, as will be seen from the plate, which gives a good representation of it. Our drawing was taken from a beautiful specimen growing in the splendid collection of C. Dorman, Esq., The Firs, Laurie Park, Sydenham, who has one of the best grown collections of Orchids we have seen, and one which does great credit to Mr. Coningsby, the gardener.
_Vanda cœrulescens_ is a compact growing species, as may be seen from our plate. In this instance it produced a flower spike of a drooping habit fifteen inches long, which is quite an exception, as the flower spikes are generally more or less erect or ascending. The sepals and petals are of a bluish-mauve, the lip of a deep blue. It is altogether most distinct in colour, and a plant that is greatly required in a collection of Orchids for the sake of the charming contrasts it yields. It blooms at different times of the year, and continues for several weeks in beauty. We find the heat of the East India house is congenial to it. It grows well in sphagnum moss, and must have good drainage, because it must be kept moist during the growing season; when at rest less moisture is required. The plant thrives either in a pot or in a basket suspended from the roof, so that it may get plenty of light, but must be shaded from the sun.
Odontoglossum Alexandræ reginæ.—F. A. Philbrick, Esq., Oldfield, Bickley, has sent us two fine spikes of this grand variety, the white flowers of which are of good form and profusely blotched, both on the sepals and petals, with reddish crimson. It is one of the finest spotted forms of this valuable species.—B. S. W.
Orchids from Perth, N.B.—We have received from W. Macdonald, Esq., Woodlands, Perth, a nice spike of _Scuticaria Steelii_, with three flowers. This is a curious growing Orchid, and one seldom sees it in blossom. The flowers are produced from the base of the reed-like leaves, and are yellow, distinctly spotted with crimson. The plant makes a fine specimen for a block, and when suspended from the roof shows off its leaves and flowers to advantage. Accompanying this was a spike of a fine variety of _Odontoglossum Pescatorei_, with flowers measuring three and a half inches across. Mr. Macdonald informs us that this spike was produced from a plant with small bulbs, and he expects, as the plant gets stronger, that it will produce larger flowers. There was also in flower at The Woodlands a grand specimen of _Camarotis purpurea_, with about 100 spikes of its pretty rosy pink flowers fully open.—B. S. W.
Transcriber’s Notes
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—Silently corrected a few palpable typos.
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