nd have prominent raised rings. When washed they are as white
as celery and when eaten raw taste somewhat like Jerusalem artichokes,
but when cooked are quite soft and possess the distinct flavor of
boiled chestnuts. A dish of these tubers when cooked look like a mass
of large caterpillars, but the Committee pronounced them excellent,
and no doubt this vegetable will now receive attention from some
of our enterprising seedsmen and may become a fashionable vegetable
because new and unlike any common kind. The tubers were shown now
for the first time in this country by Sir Henry Thompson, the eminent
surgeon. The plant is herbaceous, dying down annually leaving the
tubers, which multiply very rapidly. They can be dug at any time of
the year, which is an advantage. The plant is perfectly hardy here and
would no doubt be so in the United States, as it remains underground
in winter. [A figure of this plant with the tubers appeared in the
_Gardener's Chronicle_, January 7th, 1888.--ED.]

PHALAENOPSIS F. L. AMES, a hybrid moth orchid, the result of
intercrossing _P. grandiflora_ of Lindley with _P. intermedia Portei_
(itself a natural hybrid between the little _P. rosea_ and _P.
amabilis_), was shown at a later exhibition. The new hybrid is very
beautiful. It has the same purplish green leaves as _P. amabalis_, but
much narrower. The flower spikes are produced in the same way as those
of _P. grandiflora_, and the flowers in form and size resemble those
of that species, but the coloring of the labellum is more like that
of its other parent. The sepals and petals are pure white, the
latter being broadest at the lips. The labellum resembles that of _P.
intermedia_, being three-lobed, the lateral lobes are erect, magenta
purple in color and freckled. The middle or triangular lobe is of the
same color as the lateral lobes, but pencilled with longitudinal lines
of crimson, flushed with orange, and with the terminal cirrhi of a
clear magenta. The column is pink, and the crest is adorned with
rosy speckles. The Floral Committee unanimously awarded a first-class
certificate of merit to the plant.

A NEW LAELIA named _L. Gouldiana_ has had an eventful history. The
representative of Messrs. Sander, of St. Albans, the great orchid
importers, while traveling in America saw it blooming in New York,
in the collection of Messrs. Siebrecht & Wadley, and noting its
distinctness and beauty bought the stock of it. The same week another
new Lael