CYPRIPEDIUM VEXILLARIUM. 
[Puate 447.] 
Garden Hybrid. 
Epiphytal, ebulbous. Leaves distichous, oblong-acute, carinate beneath, some four 
inches or five inches in length, and about three-quarters of an inch in breadth, 
soft pale green, tesselated somewhat sparingly on the upper side with darker 
green. Scape terminal, erect, deep vinous purple, hirsute, one-flowered, the bract 
being about two-thirds the length of the ovary. Flowers large and brilliantly 
coloured, dorsal sepal broadly ovate, tinged with emerald green at the base, the 
surface suffused with bright light purple, the upright veins being of a deep vinous 
purple, whilst the cross veins are of a lighter shade of the same colour; the upper 
part of the sepal is pure white, which is continued round in a marginal border ; 
lower sepal whitish, faintly tinged and veined with pale green; petals deflexed, 
slightly recurved at the tips, ligulate acute, undulate and ciliate at the margins, 
the basal half suffused with bright emerald-green, but towards the apex the 
become whiter and suffused with light purple, the veins being green, dotted with 
black towards the base; the pouch-like dip is soft reddish brown, veined with 
vinous purple, paler beneath. Staminode pale greenish brown, with a lighter 
margin. 
CYPRIPEDIUM VEXILLARIUM, feichb. fil., Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1870.  Veitch’s 
Catalogue, 1879, p. 10. Florist and Pomologist, 1880, p. 13.  Veitch’s Manual of 
Orchidaceous Plants, iv., p. 100, with fig. Williams’ Orchid Grower’s Manual, 
6th edition, p. 260. 
This most beautiful hybrid is the result of a cross between Cypripedium barbatum 
and C. Fairieanum, and in the example from which our plate was taken the variety 
of C. barbatum must, we think, have been of a very fine description. The hybrid 
was obtained in the first place by the late Mr. Dominy, at the establishment of 
Messrs. Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, and although one of the early hybrids, from 
its charming and brilliant colours and its general contour it must always take a 
foremost place amongst Slipper Orchids. The plant until quite recently has been 
rather scarce and difficult to obtain, through being somewhat slow in growth, but 
we have not found this to be the case, and, in consequence, we now hold a very 
nice stock of this exceedingly handsome plant. The specimen from which our 
illustration was taken flowered with us in the Victoria and Paradise Nurseries 
during the past summer, which was not a season remarkable for either great heat 
or brightness in the atmosphere, two of the chief elements in the development ie 
Cypripedium veaillarium is a small-growing plant, indeed, it is remarkable for 
