on having raised so fine a variety of this now very large and highly popular genus. 
C. Niobe is somewhat stronger in growth than C. Fairrieanum, or at least stronger 
than that species has appeared to be of late years, but this want of strength may 
arise from its being unduly nursed for purposes of propagation, for in the earlier 
times the plant grew very freely with us, sending up stout peduncles some nine 
inches in height, but we have never seen it produce more than a single flower 
upon a stem. In those days the Cypripediums were not grown in a_ high 
temperature by us; with the exception of one or two, most of the kinds were 
grown in the temperature of the Cattleya house, in which heat C. Fairrieanum 
grew apace, therefore we cannot agree with those who ascribe want of strength 
to this species. The present plant will be found to be as strong in growth as 
C. Fairrieanum was before it was tampered with by the cultivators. 
The present plant has distichous oblong leaves, some six inches in length, dark 
_ green on the upper side, but paler beneath; peduncle erect, bearing a single flower 
which is about three inches across; dorsal sepal large and handsome, broad and ovate, 
white tinged with flesh colour, having a small blotch of pale green at the base; in 
the centre is a broad line of chocolate, and having on either side a few streaks 
of magenta, which all terminate below the margin, leaving a marginal border of pure 
white; the lower sepal smaller, creamy white, with a few pale green veins; petals 
deflexed, the points recurved, ground colour pale green, with a broad central stripe 
of chocolate and two or three dotted lines on either side of dark brown, the margins 
undulated, bordered with dark brown and fringed with long black hairs; lip medium- 
sized, pale green, veined with a darker green, the front portion rich brown. 
Cypripedium Niobe is a plant which thrives best in well-drained pots of a medium 
_ size, and should be potted in a mixture of fibrous light loam and turfy peat, adding a 
little leaf-mould and sphagnum moss. It enjoys the same temperature as the Cattleyas 
and Leelias, and should be well exposed to the sun and light, always remembering 
that the plants are under glass and liable to be burnt, so shade them lightly during 
the middle of the day. 
Carries Scuorrepiava.—Major Mason, The Firs, Warwick, sends us a fine 
of this rare and beautiful species; it is brighter in colour than any we have 
hitherto seen. Major Mason informs us that the plant from which this flower was 
ken had four Spikes last year bearing in all sixteen flowers. Our readers will 
id full culars of this plant in the second volume of this work, under Plate 
98H. W. 
