CYPRIPEDIUM. 53 



Discovered on the mountains of Sumatra, by Curtis, who collected 

 it, unknown to himself at the time, mixed with Oypripedium Gurtisii; 

 botanically it is, however, nearer G. javanicum than the species with 

 which it is locally associated. The specific name tonsum, " shorn/' 

 refers to the absence of the black marginal hairs that fringe the 

 petals of the species included in the subsection of the genus (0. 

 venustum, etc.) to which this belongs. 



0. venustum. 



Leaves elliptic-oblong, 4 — 6 inches long, deep green, marbled and 



blotched with pale greyish green above, heavily mottled with dull purple 



beneath. Scapes erect, 6 — 9 inches high, one- (rarely two-) flowered. 



Bract about one-half the length of the ovary. Flowers 2\ inches across 



vertically ; upper sepal broadly cordate, acute, white with dark green 



veins ; lower sepal ovate-lanceolate, acute, much smaller, pale green with 



dark green veins ; petals spreading, sub-spathulate, margins ciliate, basal 



portion green with some blackish warts that are seated chiefly near 



the margins and on the mid-vein, apical portion dull purple toned with 



brown ; lip sub-cylindric, pale yellow-green tinged with rose-colour and 



veined and reticulated with green, the infolded lobes tawny yellow, 



almost meeting at their edges. Staininode semi-lunate, with a narrow 



notch on the basal side, and a small tooth in front. 



Cypripedium venustum, Wallieli fide Sims in Bot. Mag. t. 2129 (1820). Loddiges' 

 Bot. Cab. VI. t. 583 (1821). Bot. Eeg. t. 788 (1824). Lindl, Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 530. 

 Warner's Sel. Orch. II. t. 24 (spectabile). 



var. — par dinum. 



Flowers larger ; the sepals of a purer white, with the veins broader 



and of a deeper green; the warts on the petals larger and more scattered; 



the lip of a brighter colour, with the reticulations more prominent. 



C. venustum pardinum, Gard. Chron. I. s. 3 (1887), p. 382, icon. xyl. C. 

 pardinum, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. 1869, p. 554. Fl. Mag. n. s. t. 51. 



Discovered by Dr. Wallich in Sylhet, in north-east India, early in 

 the present century, and introduced, according to Dr. Sims [Botanical 

 Magazine, loc. cit.), from the Botanic Garden at Calcutta by Messrs. 

 Whitley, Brames and Milne, with whom it flowered in the November 

 preceding the publication of Sims' description and plate; its actual 

 date of introduction must therefore have been in the year 1819, 

 and it was thence the first of the coriaceous species that became 

 known to science, and the first that was brought under cultivation. 

 It is the typical species of a sub-section of the genus, now a 

 rather extensive group, of which the most obvious characteristics 



