54 CYPRIPEDIUM. 



are the tesselated foliage, the homely colours of the flowers, the 

 broad white upper sepal symmetrically striped with greeu (and 

 sometimes deep purple), the warty petals fringed with black hairs, 

 and the semi-lunate, almost horseshoe-shaped staminode. The variety 

 pardinum, which is, in a horticultural sense, an improvement on the 

 type, was introduced to the Royal Gardens at Kew. The flowering 

 season of Gypripedium venuskim is usually from January to March. 



O. villosum. 



Leaves linear-ligulate, 10 — 18 inches long, equitant at base, acute or 



obscurely two-lobed at the apex, of a uniform grass-green above, paler 



beneath and spotted with purple towards the base. Bract nearly as 



long as the ovary. Scapes very hairy, nearly as long as the leaves, 



one-flowered. Flowers among the largest in the genus, 5 — 6 inches 



across vertically, with a glossy varnished surface ; upper sepal ciliolate, 



broadly oval, slightly hooded at the apex, the margins revolute 



towards the base, and with a hirsute keel at the back, brown-purple 



at the base and centre, the remaining area green with a narrow 



"white marginal band ; lower sepal similar but smaller, pale yellow 



green ; petals ciliolate, spathulate, with some purple hairs at the base, 



undulate, bent forward, with a broad brown-purple mid - vein, the 



superior half yellow-brown, the inferior half paler ; lip prominent, 



calceiform, brownish yellow with a tawny yellow margin at the aperture, 



infolded lobes broad, tawny yellow. Staminode oblong-cordiform, 



niucronate, with a small glancmlar boss in the centre, tawny yellow. 



Cypripedium villosum, Lindl, in Gard. Chron. 1854, p. 125. Tllus. hort. IV. t. 

 126 (1857). Linden's Pesc. t. 48. Van Houtte's Fl. des Serres, XIV. t. 1475. 



var.— Boxalli. 



As distinguished from the species — the upper sepal is somewhat 



narrower at the base and the margins more reflexed, the central area 



is covered with numerous blackish spots that are more or less confluent 



in the middle and towards the base, and the white marginal band 



broader and purer ; the lower sepal is more acuminate and usually 



bidentate at the apex; the petals are slightly narrower at the base, 



and their colouring has a more tesselated appearance. 



C. villosum Boxalli, supra. C. Boxalli, Bchb. in. Gard. Chron. VII (1S77), p. 367. 

 Id. VIII, p. 776. Bins. hort. XXVI. p. 74, t. 345. 



sub-vars. (of viMomm).—aurewm (Gard. Chron. XIX. (1883), p. 37-1), 

 upper sepal bright yellow-green margined with white, the basal and central 

 area shaded with brown, the petals and lip tinted with bright golden 

 yellow ; (oi villosum Boxalli) atratum (Gard. Chron. I. s. 3 (1887), 

 p. 210, with icon, xyl.), the blackish spots on the upper sepal enlarged 



