Addisonia 41 



(Plate 141) 



PAPHIOPEDILUM ROTHSCHILDIANUM 

 Rothschild's Venus-slipper 



Native of Borneo, Sumatra, and New Guinea 



Family Orchidackae Orchid Family 



Cypripedium Rothschildianum Reichb. f. Gard. Chron. 63: 457. 1888. 

 Paphiopedilum Rothschildianum Pfitz. Bot. Jahrb. 19: 41. 1894. 



A plant with long basal leaves and striking yellow flowers marked 

 with purple. The leaves are at the base of the plant, strap-shaped 

 and obtuse, and are up to two feet long and two inches wide, 

 glabrous throughout. The scape sometimes reaches a height of 

 over two feet, thus somewhat exceeding the leaves, and is of a 

 violet color and minutely pubescent; it bears from one to three 

 flowers, the diameter of which is sometimes over five inches between 

 the ends of the sepals. The bracts are oblong-ligulate with a three- 

 toothed apex which reaches to about the middle of the distinctly 

 stalked ovary, and are of a green color lined with black-purple. 

 The dorsal sepal is ovate, acute, and has the margin and back 

 ciliolate; it is yellow with about fifteen black-purple lines. The 

 lower sepal, made up of the two lateral sepals united, is similar to 

 the dorsal, but is narrower and has fewer nerves. The linear 

 seven-nerved petals are twice as long as the sepals or more, pendu- 

 lous, are attenuate into a rather obtuse apex, and are up to five 

 inches long; they are pale green with dark purple spots, and are 

 undulate on the margins where they are ciliate with long dark hairs. 

 The lip, somewhat laterally compressed, is about as long as the 

 lower sepal, with the sac or pouch about equaling the claw; it is a 

 dull purple, except the apex of the pouch which is yellow. The 

 staminodium is of peculiar structure, resembling the head and beak 

 of a bird; it consists of a hairy base, with a long two-toothed beak 

 at right angles thereto, hairy on the lower surface. The stigma is 

 nearly orbicular. 



This striking plant when in flower would command attention in 

 any collection of orchids, and its peculiarities must be seen to be 

 appreciated. It is an inhabitant of humid hot forests, and this 

 will give a clew to its successful cultivation. At the place where 

 first described the assertion is made that its introduction is due to 

 the "indefatigable zeal of Mr. F. Sander." In an advertisement 

 in a succeeding number of the Gardeners' Chronicle it is asserted 

 that the plant was first introduced into cultivation from New 

 Guinea by J. Linden in May, 1887, and that the first flowers appeared 

 in January, 1888. It was named in honor of Baron Ferdinand de 



