CYPRIPEDIUM. 155 
will shrivel. The roots should be spread out amongst the 
potting mixture, which should be pressed in firmly and 
at once well watered. The key to the successful manage- 
ment of Cypripediums is the watering-pot. All the species 
like plenty of water at the roots all the year round. The 
atmosphere about them, too, should be constantly saturated, 
but the leaves should not be wetted beyond a light syringing 
in the evening of hot days. When Cypripediums show 
signs of bad health, they should be at once shaken free of 
soil, the roots carefully washed, all rotten portions cut 
away, and the invalids then planted in clean living sphagnum 
and sand, in small pots. They must be kept moist, in 
a warm, shaded stove, till they recover, when they may 
be re-potted into the proper mixture. Except very few 
species, all the Cypripediums require tropical treatment 
all the year round. 
During the last ten years Cypripediums have received 
more attention from hybridists and specialists, as well as 
from horticulturists generally, than any other genus of 
Orchids. The exceptional form and, almost invariably, 
attractive colours of the flowers, their great lasting qualities, 
the ease with which the majority of the kinds can be 
cultivated, and the comparatively short time it takes to 
grow a small plant into a specimen—all these are points 
which have favoured the Cypripediums as garden plants. 
But their great interest and value in horticulture is seen 
in their plastic nature in the hands of the hybridist. There 
are more hybrids of Cypripediums than of all other Orchids 
put together. Hybrid Orchids almost invariably fetch high 
prices. Many of the hybrids are exceedingly beautiful, 
and quite distinct in character; but a good many more are 
poor, and scarcely worth growing, except, perhaps, as hybrid 
curiosities. There are also a very large number of varie- 
ties, both of species and hybrids, all of which have names: 
