Part 6

The temperature best suited for this plant is that of the cool Orchid-house. We have found it succeed well in pots in a compost of good fibrous peat, with plenty of drainage. It requires a good season of rest, during which period the plant should be kept rather dry until it begins to show renewed signs of growth, when the supply of water may be increased. It is propagated by division of the pseudobulbs just before they start into growth. We are indebted for the opportunity of figuring this plant to Dr. Boddaert, of Ghent, Belgium, in whose collection it flowered last July.

A fine figure of the original _Anguloa Ruckerii_ will be found in _Warner’s Select Orchidaceous Plants_, 2nd series, t. 10; and it is also figured in the _Botanical Register_, 1846, t. 41; and in _Moore’s Illustrations of Orchidaceous Plants_, art. Auguloa, plate 3.

Cattleya Dowiana.—We have received a very beautiful flower of this grand Cattleya, by post, from R. Dodgson, Esq., of Blackburn, in whose fine collection the plant has been grown. Mr. Osman, the gardener, says, “we had three imported plants last year, and two of them are now in bloom.” We were pleased to hear this, as _Cattleya Dowiana_ is considered a difficult plant to flower, though we have seen many plants blooming this season. There is no doubt that its cultivation is becoming better understood. The variety above referred to has a large lip of a most intense dark purple, striped and reticulated with golden yellow, in a very prominent manner. The sepals and petals are large, of good substance, of a bright nankeen colour, and produce a very pleasing and altogether distinct appearance. This is, undoubtedly, one of the most distinct and beautiful of all Cattleyas. There is a grand figure of this species in the 2nd series of _Warner’s Select Orchidaceous Plants_, t. 27.—B. S. W.

Cypripedium Spicerianum.—We were pleased to receive last month a splendid bloom of this fine variety from J. S. Bockett, Esq., of Stamford Hill. There is no doubt that it is one of the most distinct species of the whole genus. The dorsal sepal is erect, curiously curved, pure white, of a wax-like texture, having a purple streak extending from the base to the apex; the linear-oblong petals are much crisped on the edge, and, like the other parts of the flower, are of a bronzy-green colour, the lip being darker, of a reddish-brown and glossy. It has been named in honour of H. Spicer, Esq., and was introduced from India some few years ago. We also received at the same time a fine form of _Odontoglossum Chestertoni_, and a most distinctly spotted variety of _O. Alexandræ_, the sepals and petals of which are white, spotted with reddish-crimson, and the lip white, with a large reddish-brown blotch on the lower portion.—B. S. W.

DENDROBIUM AINSWORTHII ROSEUM. [Plate 20.] A Garden Hybrid.

Epiphytal. _Stems_ (pseudobulbs) clustered, elongate, spreading, terete, stoutish above, tapering to the base, jointed, the surface furrowed between the joints. _Leaves_ distichous, linear-oblong, acute, three-fourths of an inch broad, sheathing the stems at the base, the sheaths remaining as a membranous investment. _Peduncles_ proceeding from the joints of the stem, slender, two to three-flowered, the pedicels with small ovate bracts at their base. _Flowers_ showy, white, with rich amaranth-crimson blotch, measuring about three inches across; _sepals_ lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, spreading, white, tinged with rose colour, as are the larger and broader oblong-ovate _petals_; _lip_ (labellum) broadly obovate, cucullate, the basal portion rolled in over the column, the anterior portion spread out into a broad concave heart-shaped front lobe, which is undulated at the margin, and nearly covered by a large rich amaranth-crimson blotch, feathered at the edge, and traversed by deeper crimson veins, the extreme margin being paler. _Column_ short, enclosed by the basal portion of the lip.

Dendrobium Ainsworthii, _Moore_ in _Gardeners’ Chronicle_ (1874), N.S. i. 443, figs. 93, 94; _Id._ N.S. viii., 166, figs. 30, 31, 32; _Anderson_ in _Gardeners’ Chronicle_, N.S. vii., 751; _Floral Magazine_, 2 s. t. 196; _Rand’s Orchids_, 242; _Williams’ Orchid Growers’ Manual_, ed. v., 163.

_Var._ ROSEUM; sepals and petals tinted with magenta rose; lip almost wholly covered by the large mulberry-crimson feathered blotch.

Dendrobium Ainsworthii _var._ ROSEUM, _Moore_ in _Gardeners’ Chronicle_ (1877), N.S. vii., 655; _Id._ N.S. viii., 166; _Anderson_ in _Gardeners’ Chronicle_, N.S. vii., 750.

The beautiful _Dendrobium Ainsworthii_ is the result of a cross between _D. nobile_ and _D. heterocarpum_, and was raised by Mr. Mitchell, gardener to R. F. Ainsworth, Esq., M.D., Of Higher Broughton, Manchester, after whom it is named. In habit of growth and in general appearance the plant partakes mostly of the character of _D. nobile_, while the flowers more closely resemble those of _D. heterocarpum_ in form, and have in a slight degree the delicious fragrance of those produced by that species. In _D. Ainsworthii_ the flowers have white sepals and petals, while the lip is marked by a dense blotch of a rich amaranth or mulberry-crimson. In the _D. Ainsworthii roseum_ now figured, the sepals and petals are of a bright rosy-magenta, and the lip is more fully covered with a richer coloured deep crimson blotch. This variety is extremely rare, and forms a charming contrast to the white blossoms of its sister hybrid. The flowers will be found very useful for cutting, as they last for a considerable time in water.

_Dendrobium Ainsworthii roseum_ requires treatment similar to that given to _D. nobile_. We have found it to do well in a compost of peat and sphagnum moss, planted in pans suspended from the roof of the East India house, in a position where it can get plenty of light and air. During the growing season this plant enjoys a liberal supply of water, which after the bulbs have completed their development may be gradually withheld, and the plant cooled down by placing it in the Cattleya-house, where it should remain until the time of flowering, which extends from February to June. Mr. Stevens, of Trentham, grows it very successfully, suspended in a well-appointed plant stove, where it has abundance of light.

We remember seeing a splendid plant of _Dendrobium Ainsworthii roseum_ exhibited by Mr. Mitchell, at the Whitsuntide Manchester Show, in May, 1877, in the form of a well furnished specimen two and a half feet in height and two feet in breadth, the stems being literally smothered with some hundreds of its beautiful crimson-lipped rosy-tinted flowers.

Referring to this same Manchester Show of 1877, Mr. Anderson, of Meadow Bank, a well-known Orchid grower, writes of this plant, as follows (_Gardeners’ Chronicle_, N.S. vii., 750):—“Possibly the gem of the Exhibition was _Dendrobium Ainsworthii roseum_. This is a most remarkable seedling partaking of the character of both its parents (_D. nobile_ and _D. heterocarpum_), and in some respects superior to either. In point of floriferousness none of its parents can lay claim to such a quantity of nodes on the deciduous stems, each bearing, or rather emitting, its quota of flowers. I counted on one stem sixteen short racemes, each two and three-flowered. The flower itself has the sepals and petals of _moniliforme_ rather than of _nobile_, white shaded with an almost imperceptible tint of rose, and tipped distinctly with that soft pleasing colour. The labellum is flat, like an expanded _heterocarpum_, reflexing a little towards the centre, with a blotch covering three-quarters of its surface with deep veined purplish or rather mulberry-crimson, edged very distinctly with white, and the extremity slightly tipped with crimson. This I look upon as one of the greatest gains in hybridization, whether we regard the colour of the flower, or the general floriferousness of the plant, or its free although not awkward habit of growth. As an Orchid enthusiast of the last five and twenty years, I would pronounce it one of the greatest gains that may be counted up in the whole known Orchid family.”

Altogether this is a most desirable plant, and being easy of cultivation, and of remarkably free-flowering habit, it should find a place in every collection.

AËRIDES LOBBII. [Plate 21.] Native of Moulmein.

Epiphytal. _Stems_ erect, densely foliose, producing the stout aërial roots from between the leaf bases. _Leaves_ evergreen, close set, distichous, leathery in texture, loriform, channelled, obliquely bilobed at the apex, of a deep green colour, obsoletely spotted with purple, paler on the under surface. _Racemes_ axillary, many-flowered, long, branched, cylindrical, pendulous. _Flowers_ very numerous, medium-sized, fragrant, the sepals and petals white, flushed with rosy purple and spotted with deeper rose-purple, the broader lip with a bar of rosy purple, darkest in the centre, from base to apex, and bordered with white; _sepals_ and _petals_ elliptic-oblong, nearly equal, incurved; _lip_ much larger, clawed, the claw hollowed out and coadunate with the base of the column, the limb ovate or somewhat lozenge-shaped, wavy at the margin; _spur_ arcuate, somewhat compressed laterally. _Column_ short, in form resembling the neck and beak of a bird, with the front edge produced and folded over the stigmatic cavity.

Aërides Lobbii, _Hort. Veitch_; _Lemaire_, _Illustration Horticole_, xv., t. 559; _Williams_, _Orchid Growers’ Manual_, ed. 5, 67; _Rand_, _Orchids_, 149; _Britten & Gower_, _Orchids for Amateurs_, 177.

This very beautiful brightly-coloured plant was discovered in Moulmein by Mr. Thomas Lobb, who sent it to the Messrs. Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, about the year 1856. It is of remarkably free-flowering and decorative character, and is no doubt one of the most beautiful species of this fine genus of Orchids, being valuable alike on account of its compact-growing habit, and the strikingly ornamental nature of its inflorescence. There appear to be several varieties of this plant distributed through our Orchid collections, all of them handsome and deserving of cultivation, but that which we now illustrate, from a finely grown, elegantly branching spike, kindly sent to us by C. J. Hill, Esq., of Nottingham, and referred to in the note published under Plate 15, is the finest form, and the most freely bloomed specimen we have met with. We were, in truth, charmed with the size and colour of the flowers of this plant, when recently inspecting Mr. Hill’s collection, the long spikes of blossom which were produced by so small a plant being quite extraordinary.

There is no genus of Orchids that surpasses _Aërides_ in having handsome evergreen foliage, so that, even when not in blossom, they are exceedingly pretty objects; while to this it must be added, that their flower-spikes are beautiful, and their flowers deliciously fragrant; some, of course, are more handsome than others, but all are worth growing: in fact, we have never seen an indifferent _Aërides_. They have every good quality that a plant of this character can possess, and they are of easy cultivation, so that anyone who has a stove may manage them successfully. They do not require so much heat as some persons imagine; the temperature need not be above 65° in the winter; more is, indeed, required in summer, but even then sun-heat should be fully utilised, and very little fire-heat should be used.

_Aërides Lobbii_ blooms in June and July, and lasts for three or four weeks in beauty. The plant, from which our illustration was taken, was but a foot in height, and the magnificent flowering racemes we saw upon it were fully two feet six inches in length, with two branches each a foot in length. The sepals and petals are white, spotted with bright rose colour; the lip is also of a bright rose colour, slightly veined and margined with white. The flowers are deliciously fragrant.

The plant being very compact in growth, occupies but little space, so that anyone having a small vacant place in the Orchid-house or plant stove, might readily grow it. It will thrive either in a basket suspended from the roof of the house, or in a pot planted in sphagnum moss, with good drainage, and a moderate supply of water during the summer season, while in winter only just sufficient should be given to keep the moss damp. The plants do not, however, like to be dried up, as this often causes them to loose their bottom leaves, which is a great disfigurement. They require plenty of light, but do not like to be exposed to the burning sunshine. Canvas should therefore be used as a shading during all the bright sunny portion of the day, but when the sun has, in some degree, lost its burning heat the blinds may be raised. Never allow water to get into the hearts of the plants in winter. In summer a fine rose should be employed to syringe them, which operation should be done about three o’clock in the afternoon, when the house is closed.

They should be always kept free from insects. Scale, thrips, and many other insects are to be reckoned amongst their enemies, and cockroaches, if allowed to attack them, will often eat away their young roots and flower-spikes.

CYPRIPEDIUM LAWRENCEANUM. [Plate 22.] Native of Borneo.

Epiphytal. _Stem_ almost none, the leaves springing from the crown of stout roots. _Leaves_ radical, distichous, coriaceous, broadly oblong, acute, channelled, a foot long, the upper surface marbled with a dark green mosaic pattern on a whitish-green ground colour. _Scapes_ solitary in the leaf-axils, stout, pubescent, with an oblong-ovate acute sheathing bract near the top, from which the flower or flowers emerge. _Flowers_ very large, in the way of those of _C. barbatum majus_; _dorsal sepal_ sub-rotund or very broadly-ovate, acute, white, with numerous (about thirteen) shining curved purplish veins which run out nearly or quite to the edge, and usually alternate with others which are short and less boldly marked; _lateral sepals_ connate, small, oblong, greenish white, with five dark purplish veins; _petals_ fully half an inch wide, divaricate, linear-oblong ciliate, green in the upper half, with purple margin, stained with dull purple towards the tip, and with several dark fleshy warts along each margin, the lower half flushed with pale wine red; _lip_ very large, pouch-shaped, the lateral horns much developed, purplish brown above, yellowish green below, with numerous warts on the inside. _Staminode_ of a wax-like yellowish white, the posterior exterior border split in the centre, and having five anterior teeth, the middle one much larger than the rest.

Cypripedium Lawrenceanum, _Reichenbach fil._, in _Gardeners’ Chronicle_, N.S., x., 748; _Veitch and Sons_, _Catalogue of New Plants_, 1879, p. 9, 23, with figure; _Florist and Pomologist_, 1880, 112, with figure.

The introduction of this splendid species of Lady’s Slipper is one of the results of Mr. F. W. Burbidge’s visit to Borneo, in the service of Messrs. Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea. It is a very robust grower, and flowered for the first time in the autumn of 1878, when it was named by Professor Reichenbach, in the place above quoted, in honour of Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., M.P., an ardent orchidophilist, and the possessor of a collection of Orchids of unequalled richness and beauty.

The Cypripediums now form a large family group, and rank amongst the most useful of Orchids that can be cultivated, since the lasting quality of their flowers, especially for exhibition and decorative purposes, is something extraordinary. Many of them in addition possess beautifully variegated foliage, as in the species we now figure, which has the leaves most distinctly marked with light and dark green. Our drawing was taken from a very fine plant in the select collection of H. M. Pollett, Esq., Fernside, Bickley, a gentleman who is a great lover of Orchids, and who has the wisdom to secure healthy young plants at the outset, in order that he may see them grow on into good specimens, such as the one now before us has done. It gives one great pleasure to see plants so well cultivated.

_Cypripedium Lawrenceanum_ has, as we have already said, beautifully marked foliage, so that even when not in blossom, it is found to be an object of attraction. The upper or dorsal sepals of the flowers were in this case three inches across, white, striped with plum-purple, which runs in curved lines from the base nearly to the margin. The petals are green along the upper edge, suffused with purple towards the end, and having black wart-like spots, and a fringe of purple hairs along the margin. The pouch or lip is large, of a reddish brown colour in front, the under and hinder part yellowish green.

These plants are best grown in pots with peat, and a little charcoal, or sometimes a little good fibrous loam mixed with the peat. It is a free-rooting species, and likes to be well elevated above the pot rim, so that its roots can penetrate readily and work freely in the rough material. The pot should be half filled with drainage, so that a good supply of moisture may be given to the roots during the growing season. The Cattleya or the East India-house seems to suit the plants well, as in these structures they grow and flower freely.

The flowers are very useful for cutting, as they will keep a long time in vases if the water is kept sweet and pure.

Baron Schröder’s Orchids.—On the occasion of a recent visit to The Dell, Staines, the seat of Baron Schröder, we had the good fortune to inspect the fine collection of Orchids which has been got together. The houses are well built, after the plans of Mr. Ballantyne, the gardener, and are placed in good positions; not only have the ventilation and heating power been well considered, but cleanliness also; indeed the arrangement of the houses leaves nothing to be desired. The Orchids were, at the time, looking remarkably well. Entering the Phalænopsis house we noticed a fine plant in flower of the rare and beautiful _Phalænopsis intermedia Portei_, a treat which seldom falls to one’s lot, for it is a matter of regret that this splendid Phalænopsis is so rare in collections: it must be very scarce in its native habitat or collectors would surely find it oftener. _Cypripedium Spicerianum_ was also flowering here. Several different species of _Nepenthes_ were in fine character, growing above a tank, with their pitchers gracefully drooping over the water, in which position they seemed to be quite at home. In this house were also some grand plants of different species of _Saccolabium_, _Cypripedium_, &c., all doing well. Leaving the Phalænopsis house the Cattleya house, which runs at right angles to it, is next entered. Here we noticed a gigantic specimen of _Cattleya exoniensis_, carrying several spikes of flower; _Lælia autumnalis atrorubens_, with grand spikes, and flowers of unusual size and fine colour; and _Dendrobium Wardianum_ in full beauty, suspended from the roof. The Cattleyas, &c., in this house were in grand condition, and bid fair to produce some fine spikes next season. In the Odontoglossum house _Zygopetalum Gautieri_ was flowering well, also _Miltonia candida_ and _Sophronitis grandiflora_. The East Indian Orchids were in an especially healthy condition, the collection containing some grand specimens of _Vanda_, _Aërides_, and _Saccolabium_.

This collection, which has been lately formed, bids fair to become one of the finest in the country, Baron Schröder being an enthusiastic lover of this handsome class of plants, and being also careful to obtain only the best varieties.—H. W.

LÆLIA XANTHINA. [Plate 23.] Native of Brazil.

Epiphytal. _Pseudobulbs_ clavate fusiform, the narrowed base closely invested by imbricating bracts, monophyllous. _Leaves_ oblong-lorate, bluntish, coriaceous, longer than the pseudobulbs, and with them reaching to about a foot in height. _Scape_ four to six flowered, issuing from a terminal linear-oblong acute compressed bract or spathe, three-fourths of an inch wide and about four inches long, and of a pale green colour. _Flowers_ leathery in texture, three to four inches across, very distinct in aspect; _sepals_ and _petals_ oblong-ligulate obtuse, undulated, the sides rolled back so that they appear convex, the petals most so, both of a deep golden yellow, more or less stained or flushed with olive-green; _lip_ cucullate, subquadrate, obtusely three-lobed at the apex, yolk of egg colour, paler at the edge, the front border white, and marked on the disc by a few crimson-purple veins, which are not raised like crests above the surface, as in the allied _L. flava_. _Column_ semiterete, clavate, lobulate at the apex, projected forwards, about as long as the entire edges of the lip and convergent therewith.

Lælia xanthina, _Lindley_, in _Botanical Magazine_, t. 5144; _Bateman_, _Second Century of Orchidaceous Plants_, t. 180; _Rand_, _Orchids_, 303.

Bletia xanthina, _Reichenbach fil._, in _Walpers’ Annales Botanices Systematicæ_, vi. 425; _Id._ _Xenia Orchidaceæ_, ii. 54.

This interesting and distinct-looking _Lælia_ was introduced from Brazil many years ago by Messrs. Backhouse & Son, of York, but from the limited quantity then obtained it has always remained a scarce plant. It appears to have been imported about 1858, as it was figured in 1859 in the _Botanical Magazine_, as above quoted. It is, indeed, with great pleasure that we are enabled to introduce to our readers a figure of so rare and so distinct a species, for it is seldom seen in collections, having always been a rare plant. The colour of the flowers is of a nankeen-yellow, consequently they strongly contrast with those of the generality of Orchids of this affinity, the usual colours of which are purple, or rose colour in various tints, or white.

Our plate was prepared from a drawing which was made in September last from a plant which flowered in our own collection. It will be seen from the representation, which is a very faithful one, that _Lælia xanthina_ is really a very pretty species, and one that our collectors ought to be looking after, so that Orchid growers may have it supplied to them at a more reasonable price than at present.

The plant grows about a foot in height, and is somewhat like _Lælia purpurata_ in its habit of growth, only it is very much smaller and more compact and free-blooming. The flowers continue about three weeks in perfection. It requires the same kind of treatment as other species of _Lælia_ and _Cattleya_, and thrives best when cultivated in a pot or basket, with fibrous peat, and good drainage. Like the rest of its class it requires to be kept as fully exposed to the light as possible, in order that the pseudobulbs may be thoroughly ripened; and the growth being thus more completely matured, it will be found to become more vigorous in character, and enabled to throw up its flower-spikes more freely. There is a grand specimen of this species, over two feet in diameter, in the collection of H. Shaw, Esq., Corbar, Buxton.