MANUAL OF ORCHTDACEOUS PLANTS. 61 



and the thorough way in which every detail has been verified will 

 readily appeal to those best acquainted with the difficulties he has 

 had to contend with. It is the best and most comprehensive work 

 of its kind, is thoroughly trustworthy, and, as a ready reference, 

 should be in the hands of every lover of these popular plants. 



D. Dewae. 



A Manual of Orchidaceous Plants cultivated under Glass in Great 



Britain. Part IV. Cypripedium. James Veitch & Sons, 



Eoyal Exotic Nursery, Chelsea, S.W. 8vo, pp. 108. Price 

 10s. Qd. 



The fourth part of this excellent work, which has recently been 

 issued, is devoted to the cultivated forms of Cypripedium, now so 

 popular in gardens. Preceding parts of the work have already been 

 noticed in these pages, and it will be remembered that each part is 

 complete in itself, as a monograph of the cultivated species and 

 varieties of some important genus, or group of genera. The ground 

 covered by the present instalment is stated as follows : — 



" The species, varieties, and hybrids described in the following 

 pages will come under the following heads : — 



"I. Eucypripedia, including only the East Indian and Malayan 

 species that constitute Bentham's (subsection) Coriacea. 



" II. Seleiiipedia, coinciding with Eeichenbach's Selenipedium^ 

 and including the anomalous TJropedium Liyidenii of Lindley. 



"III. Garden hybrids, in two divisions: (a) Eucypripedium 

 hybrids; (b) Seleiiijyediiim hyhrids/' 



Lookmg through the text, we find, of Encypripedium, thirty- 

 three species and sixty-six hybrids ; and of Selenipediim, eight 

 species and twelve hybrids. Several supposed species are reduced 

 as varieties or synonyms ; while two or three others are only 

 admitted as species somewhat doubtfully. The garden hybrids 

 strike one as a very numerous group, and what they are liiiely to 

 become in the near future may be inferred from the following note : — 

 " So generally is muling among Cypripedes now practised, not only 

 in Great Britain, but also on the Continent of Europe, and in the 

 United States of America, that there is scarcely an orchid collection 

 of note in which a batch of seedlings may not be found." So 

 numerous indeed are they already, that it was found impracticable 

 to include all the hybrids that have been obtained up to the present. 

 It is evident that hybrid Cypripediums are fast becoming florists' 

 flowers; and we read with interest that " the pseudo- Latin names 

 so much in vogue, together with the cumbrous Greek compounds, 

 intelligible to none but the initiated, are as much out of place when 

 applied to hybrid Cypripedes as they would be if ap^Dlied to hybrid 

 roses." 



On one point we are inclined to differ from the author, namely, as 

 to the desirability of merging the genus Selenipediurn in Cypripedium. 

 The grounds for this course aj)pear to be as follows : — [a) That 

 Selenipediiim, though proposed by Prof. Eeichenbach, was afterwards 

 abandoned by the author in his subsequent articles in the * Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle'; (6) that the two will hybridise together; and 



