CYPRIPEDIUM PITCHERIANUM. 
(WILLIAMS’ VARIETY.) 
[Pate 453.] 
Garden Hybrid. 
Epiphytal, ebulbous. Leaves distichous, broadly ligulate, rich green on 
upper side, marbled with a deeper green, paler beneath, where it is also ornamented 
with numerous lines of reddish brown, which ‘proceed from the base upwards. 
Scape erect, somewhat stout, of a purplish hue, slightly hairy, bearing a_ large 
ovate bract and a large and gorgeous flower; the dorsal sepal is large and pure 
white, faintly tinged with pale green at the base, the centre being marked with a . 
broad stripe of deep Indian-red, and the lower half beautifully blotched and shaded 
with deep vinous purple, leaving the large upper part of the purest white; lower 
sepal smaller, pale green, veined with deep green; petals prettily undulated on the 
upper margin, where they are also fringed with black hairs, the whole surface 
bemg of a light purplish brown, spotted near the base with deep purple, and 
having a dark central band; lip large and rounded, reddish brown, with a deep 
yellow border, greenish yellow beneath. Staminode large, rosy purple, with green 
centre. 
CYPRIPEDIUM PitcHERIANUM ( Williams’ var.), B. S. Williams & Son’s Catalogue 
of New Plants, 1892, p. 8. 
CypripEDIUM PrrcHERIANUM, Reichenbach fil. 
The present plate represents a beautifully high-coloured form of this new 
hybrid, which flowered in our own establishment in the autumn of last year (1891), 
and it was awarded a First Class Certificate by the Orchid Committee of the 
Royal Horticultural Society, when shown before them on October 27th of the 
same year, This hybrid in the first place was raised between Cypripedium 
Harrisianum superbum and C. Spicerianum, and it was dedicated by Reichenbach to 
Mr. J. R. Pitcher, the celebrated Cypripedium amateur in New York, but who is 
now at the head of the nursery firm of Messrs. Pitcher and Manda, in New Jersey. 
| The variety whose portrait we now lay before our readers was raised in the 
Victoria and Paradise Nurseries, and it may be considered one of the best productions 
up to the present time, the parents being both good forms of C. Harrisianum 
superbum and C. Spicerianum magnificum, and here we wish to specially point out 
the chances of superiority which favour the artificially raised hybrid to those which 
come about through natural causes. In the latter case the parentage is a matter 
of chance; but in the former, the varieties are carefully selected by the 
hybridiser, and consequently highly prized flowers are the result. We would therefore — 
EE 
