24 CYPRIPEDIUM. 



0. Fairieanum. 



Plant dwarf and compact. Leaves oblong-ligulate, acute, 4 — 6 inches 

 long, of a uniform bright green. Scapes somewhat slender, pale green, 

 4 — 6 inches high, one-flowered. Bract less than half the length of the 

 brown-purple ovary. Flowers 2h — 3 inches across vertically ; upper sepal 

 cordate-oblong, ciliate, undulate at the margin, reflexed at the apex, with 

 a hairy keel behind, white with a pale yellow-green stain at the base, 

 and with purple longitudinal and anastomosing veins ; lower sepal smaller, 

 ovate, ciliate, pale green streaked with purple ; petals oblong-ligulate, 

 "deflexed and recurved like a buffalo's horn," fringed at the undidate 

 margin with minute blackish hairs, yellow-white with longitudinal streaks 

 and marginal bands of purple ; lip calceiform, brownish green with 

 purplish reticulation, the infolded lobes narrow, cream-white spotted with 

 purple. Staminode orbicular-lunate, with a proboscis between the horns 

 of the crescent, ivory-white mottled with green, and with a purple band 

 along the front. 



Cypripeclium Fairieanum, Lindl. in Gard. Chron. 1857, p. 740. Bot. Mag. t. 5024. 



Van Houtte's Fl. des Serrcs, XII. t. 1244. Rchb. Xcn. Orch. II. p. 108, t. 133. 



Williams' Orch. Alb. II. t. 70 (Fairrieanum). 



Cypripedium Fairieanum was first brought under notice in 185 7-, 

 when flowers were sent to Sir William J. Hooker at Kew from the 

 garden of Mr. Reid, of Bumham, Somerset, and from the nursery 

 of Mr. Parker, at Upper Holloway. In October of the same year 

 a plant in flower was exhibited at a meeting of the Horticultural 

 Society of London, held at Willis's Rooms, by Mr. Fairie, of 

 Aigburth, near Liverpool, to whom Dr. Lindley dedicated the species 

 in a description published shortly afterwards in the Gardeners* 

 Chronicle. All these plants are believed to have been obtained at 

 a sale at Stevens' Rooms of a collection of East Indian orchids 

 sent from Assam ; * beyond this, nothing whatever is known of its 

 origin ; it does not appear to have been met with in its native 

 country since that time, a circumstance that would seem to imply 

 not only a very restricted habitat, but also a very remote or 

 inaccessible station. 



This Cypripede has therefore always been a rare plant, and one 

 of the highest interest to orchid amateurs ; it is, moreover, one of 

 the most beautiful of its race, and we can imagine no one who has 

 once seen it who would not endorse the opinion of Sir William J. 

 Hooker that " the blossoms are certainly amongst the most exquisitely 

 coloured and pencilled of any in this fine genus."t 



* The late M. Van Iloutte, in his Flore des Serves, sub. 1. 1244, stated that " Le Cypripcdium 

 Fairieanum nous est venu sans noin du Bhotan et e'est sous le No. 783 que nous l'avons liviv 

 a quelques-nns de nos oorrespondants." + Bot Mag. sub. t. 5024. 



