CYPRIPEDIUM INSIGNE 



Here is a house full of Cypripedium insigne ; nothing else 

 therein save a row of big Cymbidiums in vases down the 

 middle, Odontoglossum citrosmum and Cattleya citrina hang- 

 ing on wires overhead. Every one knows this commonest of 

 Cypripeds, though many may be unacquainted with the 

 name. Once I looked into a show of window-gardening in 

 the precincts of Westminster Abbey, and among the poor 

 plants there, treasures of the poorest, I found a Cypripedium 

 insigne — very healthy and well-grown too. But when I 

 called the judges' attention, they politely refused to believe 

 me, though none of them could say what the mysterious 

 vegetable was — not the least curious detail of the incident. 

 The flower cannot be called beautiful, but undeniably it 

 is quaint, and the honest unsophisticated public loves it. 

 Moreover the bloom appears in November, lasting till 

 Christmas, if kept quite cool. The species was introduced 

 from Sylhet so long ago as 1820, but it flourishes in many 

 districts on the southern slope of the Himalayas. New 

 habitats are constantly discovered. 



There are 505 plants in this house, and if individual 

 flowers be not striking commonly — that is, flowers of the 

 normal type — the spectacle is as pretty as curious when 

 hundreds are open at once, apple-green, speckled with brown 

 and tipped with white. But to my taste, as a ' grower,' the 

 sight is pleasant at all seasons, for the green and glossy 



