CYPRIPEDIUM CARDINALE. 
{PLatE 370. | 
Garden Hybrid. 
Epiphytal. Acaulescent. eaves spreading, tufted, ensiform, deep green. Scape 
erect, clothed with reddish-brown woolly hairs, and bearing ovate-lanceolate, boat- 
shaped bracts; it is branched, and bears numerous flowers. wers from two 
to three inches or more across; dorsal sepal oblong-obtuse, ivory-white, faintly tinged 
near the edges with soft rose; lateral sepal white, tinged with yellowish green on 
the outside; petals white, more or less tinged with soft rose near the base, where 
there are numerous short rose-coloured hairs, the margins also suffused with soft 
rose; dip round and full, intensely rich rosy-carmine, the infolded margin white, 
streaked and spotted with deep bright rosy-carmine. Staminode white, spotted in 
front with rosy-purple. 
CYPRIPEDIUM CARDINALE, Reichenbach fil., Gardeners’ Chronicle, N.8., xviil., 1882, 
p. 488; The Garden, xxvii., t. 495; Veitch’s Manual of Orchidaceous Plants, part iv., 
p- 102; Williams, Orehid-Grower’s Manual, 6 ed., p. 240. 
The beautiful plant we here portray is the result of a cross between Cypripedium 
Sedeni and C. Schlimii albiflorum, the first-named parent being itself a hybrid, raised 
by the Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, between C. longifolium and C. Schlimii, and a most 
useful and pleasing variety it has proved to be. The plant now in question is very 
beautiful, and a great improvement in colour upon C. Sedeni; this brilliancy in 
the colour of the flowers of this section of the genus is an additional point in its 
favour, and will induce a greater number of amateurs to embark in the cultivation 
of Cypripediums, a genus which the botanist tells us is in danger of extinction in 
its natural habitats, but if such is the case, its day of extinction appears to be 
indefinite under cultivation. This plant is a free grower and a profuse bloomer, and 
produces its spikes and flowers in the same manner as its first-named parent, C. 
ni. Our artist’s drawing was taken from a fine example which bloomed in our 
own collection in the Victoria and Paradise Nurseries, Upper Holloway. 
Cypripedium cardinale is a beautiful evergreen plant with deep green foliage, 
which is strap-shaped, tapering to a point, and upwards of a foot in length. The 
scape is produced well above the foliage, the lower flowers opening first, and as 
the spikes continue to lengthen they produce fresh buds, so that the plant is a 
“thing of beauty” for a considerable time; moreover, as these flowers drop off 
the plant in a perfect state after they have been expanded for several weeks, they 
may be used for personal adornment or other decorative purposes, as they retain their 
brilliancy and beauty for a long time after falling if placed in water. T he dorsal 
