Tap. 7102. 
. CYPRIPEDIUM RovmscnrLpIANUM. 
Native of New Guinea. 
Nat. Ord. OrncHIDEZ.—Tribe CyrpriPEDIER. 
Genus Cyrrievepium, Linn.; (Benth. et Heok. f. Gen. Pl. vol. iii. p. 634.) 
* Cypripepium Rothschildianum ; foliis 1-1} pedalibus late loratis obtusis glabris, 
scapo pedali 1-3-floro pubescente luride purpureo, bracteis ovario multo 
brevioribus spathaceis rubro-purpureo fasciatis, floribus maximis, sepalo 
dorsali amplo erecto ovato albo lineis ad_ 15 rubro-purpureis latis striato, 
sepalis lateralibus in unum dorsali minorem ovato-lanceolatum 9-stri- 
atum connatis, petalis sepalo dorsali duplo longioribus albis lineis 
purpureis 7 striatis ciliatis et sanguineo-maculatis, labello calceiformi 
apice saccato sacco gibboso et decurvo extus roseo v. albo purpureo 
venoso intus pallido, staminodio lineari uncinatim recurvo villoso, ovaril 
viridis costis rubro-purpureis. . 
C. Rothschildianum, Reichb. & in Gard. Chron. 1888, i. 457 and 554; Veitch 
Man. Cypriped. 45. 
C.-neo-guineense, Linden (name only), Gard. Chron. 1888, 505 (advertisement). 
This superb Cypripedium was received for-figuring under 
the above name from Messrs. Sander and Co., of St. 
Albans; who imported it from New Guinea, and at whose 
request Professor Reichenbach dedicated it to Baron 
Ferdinand de Rothschild, a munificént patron of Horti- 
culture. It comes so near the subsequently imported 
(!.. Elliottianum, O’Brien, also introduced by Messrs. 
Sander, but which is reported to be a native of the 
Philippine Islands, that Mr. Rolfe, of the Kew Herbarium, 
believing the two to be forms of one species, is in doubt 
under. which to place it. 
These Malayan ‘Cypripedia present several points of 
great interest, of which one is their variability, which 
may be taken into consideration with the facility with 
which they hybridize. Thus of such hybrids Messrs. 
Veitch in their Manual enumerate no fewer than sixty 
definite forms, besides less marked ones. Another con- 
clusion arrived at by Messrs. Veitch (Manual, p. 2) is” 
that the individual species throughout the genus, American 
‘and Indian, must have at one time existed in much greater 
numbers than they do now, and that the genus is “ suffer- 
ing gradual extinction.” In support of this opinion the 
‘Fesrvary Isz, 1890. 
