CYPRIPEDIUM POLITUM. 
[PuaTE 36. | 
Garden Hybrid. 
Epiphytal. Acaulescent. Leaves radical, distichous, coriaceous, oblong, acute, 
palish green thickly chequered with dark bottle-green markings, the under side dull 
reddish purple. Scapes solitary in the leaf axils, pubescent, purplish, terminating in 
- a lanceolate sharply keeled bract, from which the solitary blossom emerges. Flowers 
medium-sized, peculiar in form, rather showy; dorsal sepals ovate-acute, ciliate, the 
inner surface polished, suffused with reddish purple in the lower part, whitish towards 
the tip, traversed by numerous green veins of which the alternate ones are longer 
and stouter than the rest, all of them distinctly marked on the outer surface; 
lateral connate sepals smaller, ciliate, greenish white with green veins, rather shorter 
than the lip; petals linear-oblong, about two and a half inches in length, glossy, 
deflexed (more so than in the figure), ciliate with a fringe of unequal black hairs, 
bright wine-red, greenish towards the base, where it is marked with several Indian- 
purple warts most abundant near the upper edge, exterior surface green ; lip 
narrowly pouch-shaped, nearly as long as the petals, suffused in front with the same 
eo red tint, and marked thickly with green veins at the sides and back, the 
auricles erect, obtuse, interior surface green, dotted with wine-red, the incurved 
margins of the claw greenish yellow, with reddish spots. Staminode transverse, 
_ Yellowish green, with two large exterior teeth in front and a small inner tooth, 
light brown with green markings. 
Cyprirepium potirum, Reichenbach fil., in Gardeners’ Chromele, N.S. kiv., 525. 
This new Lady’s Slipper is one of .a_ batch raised some few years since by 
Robert Warner, Esq., of Broomfield, near Chelmsford, who has been successful in 
Producing several very good forms by the process of hybridisation. The plants ae 
of dwarf habit, free-growing, and free-blooming, each small growth bringing forth its 
ower. This Cypripedium politum has been flowered for several years past by Mr. 
Warmer, and thus its characteristic features and its constancy are well ascertained. 
There are also some other distinct kinds obtained through the same cross, some 
of which we hope to figure on a future occasion. We should expect that the cross 
mms made between C. barbatum superbum and C. venustum. | 
Cypripedium politum is a plant of compact habit and of free growth. The 
leaves are of a distinct and well-marked character, as will be seen in the very 
accurate portrait furnished by our artist. They ‘are oblong, acute, about five inches 
long, and somewhat over an inch broad, of a beautiful light green, barred and 
chequered with a very deep or bottle-green, which gives it a very pleasing 
“ppearance ; the under-surface is stained witha deep — reddish wine-purple. The 
d Pa ay ° c . , 
owhy flower-scapes are “ also Pp le, some six to. eight. inches ot height, each 
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