CYPRIPEDIUM. 



13 



sub-vars. — grandifionim (Van Houtte's Fl. cles Serres, loe. tit. supra), 



majus, maximum, nigrum, pallidum, pictum, purpureum, pulcherrimum, etc., 

 names that sufficiently indicate the character of the forms to which they 

 have been applied. 



Cypripedium barbatum is a native of Mount Ophir, near Malacca, 

 in the Malay Peninsula, where it was discovered in 1840 by Cuming, 

 and sent by him to Messrs. Loddiges, in whose nursery at Hackney 

 it flowered for the first time in this country in the summer of the 

 following year. Three years later it was collected in the same locality 

 by Thomas Lobb, who sent plants to the Exeter Nursery, whence it 

 became generally distributed among the orchid collections of Europe. 

 Ever since its introduction it has proved a most useful garden plant, 



Cypripedium barbatum. 



flowering freely in June and July, and continuing several weeks in 

 bloom. As one of the longest of the coriaceous Cypripedes in culti- 

 vation (it is the fourth in chronological order of introduction), it has 

 also proved one of the most yielding to cultural influence, and has 

 sported into numerous sub -varieties, many of which show a marked 



