42 CYPRIPEDIUM. 



drawing of this, which he sent with the dried inflorescence con- 

 sisting of five open flowers to the Royal Gardens at Kew, where 

 the species received the name it appropriately bears. Living plants 

 were introduced for the first time by Messrs. Low and Co., in 

 1868. 



Gypripedium Parishii belongs to the sub-section of the genus that 

 includes several noble species, all distinguished by their uniform 

 green leaves, their 4 — 7-flowered scapes, their peculiarly-shaped stami- 

 node, by the placentas of the ovary nearly meeting, and by their 

 long ribbon-like twisted petals that attain their greatest development 

 in G. Sanderianum. The members of this sub-section, especially the 

 last named, approach nearer to the South American Cypripedes than 

 any other Asiatic species. 



C philippinense. 



Leaves ligulate-oblong, 7- — 12 inches long, complicate at base, obtuse 

 or unequally bilobed at apex, coriaceous with a polished glossy surface. 

 Scapes 15—20 inches long, 3 — 5 or more flowered, the ovary of each 

 flower sheathed to half its length by a boat-shaped reddish brown 

 hairy bract. Flowers 3 inches across from tip to tip of upper and 

 lower sepal ; upper sepal broadly ovate, pointed, whitish, symmetrically 

 striped with brown-purple ; lower sepal similar, white with green veins ; 

 petals ribbon-like fringed Avith short hairs, pendulous, 5—6 inches long, 

 twisted, yellowish at the base where there are some small hairy 

 warts on both margins, and passing into dull reddish purple along the 

 greater part of their length, pale green at the apex ; lip helmet-shaped, 

 buff-yellow faintly striated with brown, the infolded lobes narrow. 

 Staminode sub-cordiform, emarginate, fringed with blackish hairs on 

 each side. 



Cypripedium philippinense, Rchb. in Bonpl. 1862, p. 335. C. lsevigatuni, Batem. in 

 Bot. Mag. t. 5508 (1865). Id. in Gard. Chron. 1865, p. 914. Fl. Mag. 1866, t. 298. 

 Belg. hort. 1867, p. 102, t. 6. Van Houtte's Fl. dcs Serves, XVII. t. 1760—61. 

 C. Roebelenii (Robbelenii), Rchb. in Gard. Chron. XX. (1883), p. 684. 



This singular species was introduced from the Philippine Islands, 



in 1864, by the late Mr. John Gould Veitch, who had made a 



voyage to that distant part of the world with the object of obtaining, 



amongst other orchids, Vanda Batemanri. He had long searched in 



vain for this plant, "and had almost began to despair of ever 



meeting with it, when running his boat one day ashore on the 



south-west side of the small island of Guimares he found the rocks 



by the coast covered with huge masses of the plant of which he 



