38 CYPRIPBDIUM. 



mersmith, has warts along- the veins of the upper sepal.* The 

 influence of cultivation has been chiefly manifested in the develop- 

 ment of the enormous upper sepal, and in the heightening of the 

 colour of the beautifully tesselated foliage. 



This fine species is worthily dedicated to Sir Trevor Lawrence, 

 Bart., President of the Royal Horticultural Society ; its normal 

 flowering season is from the beginning of April to the end of 

 May. 



0. Lowii. 



Leaves ligulate, 9 — 15 inches long, equitant at base, mucronate or 

 obscurely two-lobed at apex, leathery, grass-green. Scapes 25 — 40 inches 

 long, nodding, 3 — 5 (rarely more) flowered. Bract not more than 

 one-third the length of the ovary. Flowers with all the segments 

 ciliolate, 3 — 4 inches across vertically ; upper sepal broadly oval, acute, 

 bent forward at the apex, the sides revolute at the base, pubescent and 

 keeled behind, yellowish green changing with age to pale yellow, the 

 basal area veined with brownish purple ; lower sepal similar but smaller, 

 yellowish with green veins ; petals 3 inches long, spathulate, twisted, 

 deflexed, the narrower basal part yellow with black circular, scattered 

 spots, some of which are ocellated, the dilated distal part light violet- 

 purple ; lip cylindric-galeate, brown, paler beneath, the narrow infolded 

 lobes yellowish, the sinus between the sac and infolded lobes three- 

 toothed. Staminode obcordate, bordered with purple hairs, and having a 

 small erect horn at the base that is hairy behind, and a blunt tooth 

 in the sinus of the apical edge. 



Cypripedium Lowii {lapsu calami Lowei), Lindl. in Gard. Chron. 1847, p. 765. 

 Van Houtte's Fl. cles Serres, IV. t. 375 (1848). De Puydt Les Orch. t. 11. FL and 

 Pomol. 1870, p. 108, icon. xyl. C. cruciforme, Zoll. et Mir. in De Vriese et Pahud. 

 Illus. d'Orch. 1854. 



Discovered in Sarawak, in North-west Borneo, " growing on high 



trees in thick jungle, and flowering in April and May," by Sir 



Hugh Low, to whom the species is dedicated and by whom it 



was sent to the Clapton Nurseries in 1846. It has since been 



gathered by our own collectors in the same settlement, where it 



occurs almost invariably in the forks of the branches of trees, often 



at a great height from the ground. It flowered for the first time 



in this country in the collection of Mr. A. Kenrick, of West 



Bromwich, shortly after its introduction. 



* The variability of Cypripedium Latvrenceanum is, however, chiefly noticeable in the veins 

 of the upper sepal ; these are sometimes narrow and close set; sometimes distant, and then 

 broad and prominent ; sometimes alternately green and purple ; sometimes all purple, etc., etc. 



