14 CYPRIPEDIUM. 



improvement, from a floral point of view, on the originally introduced 

 type ; it is also a very potent agent in hybridisation, crossing freely 

 with members of its own group,* and also with other species, the 

 resulting progenies being among the most varied in form and colour 

 that have yet been obtained within the range of orchid hybridisation. 

 The variety Grossii is very distinct; its foliage is of a lighter hue 

 than that of the species, and it flowers much earlier in the year, 

 coming into bloom in March and April, and even earlier. It origi- 

 nated, without doubt, among the importations from Mount Ophir, 

 but from whom and when it received its first designation, does not 

 appear to have been recorded.f Like the species, it has become 

 very variable under cultivation, and many sub-varieties are recognised 

 by horticulturists. The variety Obrienii is intermediate between the 

 typical G. barbatum and the variety Grossii with which it is best 

 compared, and with which its flowering season is contemporaneous. 



The specific name, barbatum, "bearded," refers to the "hairy shining 

 warts which border the upper edge of the petals " ; but as many other 

 species have the same peculiarity, the name is far from being exclu- 

 sively appropriate to Cypripedium barbatum. 



0. bellatulum. 



Leaves elliptic-oblong, '7 — 10 inches long, 3 — 3 J inches broad, equitant, 

 obtuse or unequally bilobed at apex, deep green somewhat sparingly 

 mottled with pale green above, deep dull purple beneath. Scapes 

 shorter than the leaves, deep purple and pubescent, one-flowered. Bract 

 more than half as long as the ovary. Flowers 2 — 3 inches in diameter, 

 white or pale yellow, conspicuously spotted with brown-purple, the spots 

 on the sepals more or less aggregated towards the base ; upper sepal 

 oblate-orbicular, keeled behind, minutely ciliolate as are the lower sepal 

 and petals ; lower sepal smaller than the upper one, broadly ovate ; 

 petals depressed, broadly oval ; lip saccate, compressed as hi Cypripedium 

 concolor, with fewer and smaller spots externally than the other segments, 

 but densely spotted on the infolded lobes. Staminode sub-rhomboidal, 

 nearly sub-orbicular. 



Cypripedium bellatulum, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. III., s. 3 (1888), p. 648. 



* The sub-section with tesselated foliage, etc., of which Cypripedium venustum is the 

 type. See C. Argus, supra. 



t In the letterpress accompanying the coloured plate in the Belgique horticolc, it is said 

 to have been discovered in Peru by Cross. Its Peruvian origin is manifestly an error ; its 

 association with Cross, the traveller, is also doubtful, it being more probable that another 

 Cross, gardener to Louisa Lady Ashburton at Melchet Court, and raiser of the hybrid that 

 bears his name, may have been the first to detect it in the orchid collection under his charge. 



