70 CYPRIPEDIUM. 



M. Linden in 1875, and flowered, probably for the first time in 

 Europe, in bis nursery, in February of the following year; tbe first 

 recorded notice of its appearance in England was in 1881, when 

 it had been some time in cultivation in Mr. Berrington's garden, 

 at Pant-y- Goitre, near Abergavenny.* More recently it has been 

 sparingly distributed among other collections, chiefly through 

 M. Binot, a French collector of Brazilian orchids, who obtained 

 it from the Organ Mountains ; it is thence, geographically speaking, 

 so far as at present known, a remotely outlying member of the 

 genus. 



HYBRID CYPRIPEDIUMS. 



In our introductory notes we have adduced the principal evidence 

 upon which rests the hypothesis that the flowers of Cypripedium in 

 a state of nature rarely produce seed, owing to the absence generally 

 of the agencies by which they can be fertilised. Under such circum- 

 stances, therefore, natural hybrids cannot be expected to occur, even 

 where two species are found growing intermixed or in close 

 proximity to each other; and it is a remarkable fact — a fact that 

 unquestionably tends to strengthen the evidence we have cited, 

 circumstantial as it is in some points — that no Cypripedium having 

 the aspect of being a natural hybrid between two recognised species 

 has ever yet appeared among importations of the species, as undoubted 

 natural hybrids have appeared among importations of Cattleya, Laslia, 

 and Odontoglossum. In strong contrast to this stands the multitude 

 of hybrids raised artificially in the glass houses of Europe, among 

 which are new forms of exceptional interest, and of so vigorous a 

 constitution that they may, in truth, be regarded as the forerunners 

 of new races. Without attempting to anticipate results to be here- 

 after obtained from the intermixture of these races with each other 

 and with the pure species, it may be safely affirmed that no greater 

 triumph has been achieved in modern times by the gardeners' art 

 than the production of these hybrid Cypripedes. 



The first hybrid Cypripedium was raised by Dominy, from Cypri- 

 pedium villosum and C. barbatum, more than a quarter of a century 



* Gard. Chron. XV. (1881), p. 656. 



