66 CYPRIPEBIUM. 



var . — Hincksianum. 



Scapes shorter and bearing fewer flowers than those of the variety 

 Hartwegii, but conforming in every other respect to it. 



C. longifolium Hincksianum, supra. C. Hincksianum, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. IX. 

 (1878), p. 202. 



Gypripedium longifolium was first discovered by Warscewicz, in 

 1849, on the Cordillera of Chiriqui, at 5,000 — 7,000 feet elevation. 

 It remained known to science only as an imperfect herbarium 

 specimen till 1867, when it was re-discovered by Endres, by whom 

 it was introduced into European gardens. In its native home it is 

 a sub-terrestrial plant, growing' among the moss beneath the trees 

 of the forest, always in the shade and flowering all the year round.* 

 Of the origin of the variety gracile we find no record. The variety 

 Hartwegii, better known in gardens under the name of Boezlii, was 

 first detected by Hartweg about the year 1842, on the eastern 

 slopes of the Andes of Ecuador, near Quito, at 4,000 feet elevation, t 

 while collecting plants in that region for the Horticultural Society 

 of London. It was subsequently found by Dr. Seeman on the 

 Isthmus of Darien, and still later by Roezl (1871) on the banks 

 of the small river Dagua that flows down the western slopes of 

 the central Cordillera of New Granada ; by the last-named collector 

 it was introduced to M. Linden's horticultural establishment at 

 Ghent, whence it became generally distributed among British and 

 continental gardens ; it flowered for the first time in Europe in the 

 St. Petersburg Botanic Garden in January, 1873, and in England 

 in January of the following year at our Chelsea Nursery. The 

 variety Hincksianum is a more recent importation that appeared for 

 the first time in the collection of Captain Hincks, at Breckenbrough, 

 Thirsk. The three varieties we have distinguished above are, in 

 fact, nothing more than geographical forms differing from the 

 original type and from each other more in their vegetative organs 

 than in any other particular. The flowers of the varieties Hartwegii, 

 gracile, and HincJcsianum are more brightly coloured than those of 

 C. longifolium proper, but are not distinguishable from each other 

 in this respect. 



* R. Pfau in Gard. Chron. XX. (1883), p. 722. 



t The presence of Cypripcdium longifolium in this latitude seems to require confirmation. 

 The plants now in cultivation under the names of C. Hartwegii and O. Boezlii show no tangible 

 characters by which the one may be distinguished from the other All the C. longifolium forms 

 in cultivation have been brought from the northern geographical limits of the Selenipedia, a 

 circumstance that has occasioned some doubt as to the correctness of the locality assigned to 

 Hartweg's discovery. 



