CYPRIPEDIUM PORPHYROCHLAMYS. 
[PLATE 426.] 
Garden Hybrid. 
Terrestrial. Acaulescent. Leaves  distichous, ancipitous at the base, vblong- 
lanceolate, from four to six inches long, pale green, faintly tesselated with darker 
green. Peduncle erect, one-flowered. Bract boat shaped, about equal in length to 
the ovary, slightly hairy. Flowers large and showy, dorsal sepal roundish ovate, the 
central part deep rich purplish crimson, with darker veins, margin white, with a heavy 
border of white on the apex, and at the base a semi-lunate patch of pale green ; inferior 
sepal very much smaller, greenish white, with darker veins; petals ligulate, much 
deflexed, undulate at the margins, and ciliolate, yellowish green at the base, much 
freckled with dark dots, the apical portion pure rich violet-purple ; the pouch-like lip 
oblong-obtuse, brownish purple with darker veins on the upper side, but paler beneath, 
passing into green. Staminode purple, paler at the edges. 
CYPRIPEDIUM PORPHYROCHLAMYS, Leichenbach in Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1884, xxi., 
N.S. p. 476. — Veitch’s Manual of Orchidaceous Plants, iv., p. 96. 
The plant here depicted is one of great beauty, and is the result of a cross between 
Cypripedium barbatum Warnerianum and C. hirsutissimum. It is one of the few 
hybrids which have hitherto flowered, that have C. hirsutissimum as one of the parents. 
It was raised by Mr. Seden, at the nurseries of Messrs. Veitch & Sons, King’s Road, 
Chelsea, and it first flowered in 1884 when it was named by Professor Reichenbach. 
From the great quantity of Slipper Orchids which have been raised and are coming on 
now to a flowering stage, there are many inferior kinds, and many that have too close 
a resemblance to others already in commerce, and the same will be sure to occur 
from those unflowered plants which already have an existence, consequently a weeding 
out will be necessary, when some kinds which now stand high in favour will be cast 
on one side, but the plant here portrayed will occupy the first rank for a very long 
time, and we think will become a permanent favourite. The plant here figured was 
grown in the once famous collection of Cypripediums gathered together by F. G. 
Tautz, Esq., late of Studley House, Shepherd’s Bush, where the plants were maintained 
in excellent health by his gardener, Mr. Cowley, whom we hope to again see in charge 
of a still finer assortment in his new home, and also that Mr. Tautz may give us 
some startling novelties from his many hybrid seedlings. 
Cypripedium porphyrochlamys, being a seedling from two Eastern plants, from 
warm localities, naturally enough, likewise requires the temperature of the warmest 
house to grow it freely and to induce it to flower. It is an evergreen plant, 
having oblong leaves of a pale green, slightly tesselated with deeper green. The 
