68 CYPRIPEDIUM. 



The original Cyprvpedvum Schlimii was discovered by the traveller 

 whose name it bears, in 1852, on the eastern Cordillera of New 

 Granada, near Ocana, at an altitude of about 4,000 feet. It was 

 introduced to M. Linden's horticultural establishment at Brussels 

 two years later by Wagener.* The variety albiflorum, according to 

 Linden, comes from the western Cordillera, where " it is exceedingly 

 rare"; jit was introduced about the year 1873. The flowers of this 

 species vary in colour ; in the first discovered type the sepals and 

 petals are beautifully spotted and stained with rose-pink; in the 

 variety they are almost pure white ; between these extremes are 

 many intermediate variations that have been introduced since. 



It lias long been known to horticulturists that Oypripedium Schlimii 

 is self-fertilising, and produces seed freely; but it is only very 

 recently that we have been able to partially investigate the cause, and 

 therefore the explanation now offered is confessedly imperfect. The 

 sexual apparatus of this species differs in no essential character from 

 that represented in page 7, but, as is the case with all the Selenipedia, 

 the relative position of the stigmatic disc to the other parts is somewhat 

 modified ; this disc is rhomboidal in outline, much thickened beneath, 

 especially on the basal side, forming there a conical protuberance that 

 stands immediately below the anthers, is nearly para] lei with the 

 staininode, and projects beyond it. The anthers are normal as regards 

 form and position, but the glutinous envelope is exceedingly thin, 

 loses its viscidity after the flower has been some time expanded, and 

 becomes dry ; the granular pollen is then set free upon any slight 

 motion imparted to the flower ; and as these granules are exceedingly 

 minute and numerous, it can scarcely happen that some of them do 

 not fall upon the stigmatic disc, especially the thickened part that 

 projects immediately below the anthers, and the ovary thence becomes 

 fertilised. The consequence to the plant is the enfeebling of its 

 constitution, by which the species is one of the most difficult to 

 import alive, and scarcely less difficult to keep alive when so imported. 

 For some time after its first introduction, C. Schlimii was a very rare 

 plant in British gardens, and horticulturists took advantage of its self- 

 fertilising power to raise young plants from seed. 



The excessive fertility of Cijpripi'diuu) Schlimii is not only seen in the 

 production of seed capsules without the intervention of any external 

 help, but the species has also proved to be one of the most potent of 

 hybridising agents. No orchid yet brought under cultivation lias been 

 the means of producing -within its own section such remarkable results 

 as have been effected by C. Schlimii through hybridisation, especially in 



* Xen. Orcli. I. p. 125. t Illus. hort. 1874, p. 138. 



