CYPRIPEDIUM SELLIGERUM. 
[PLaTE 255. ] 
Garden Hybrid. 
Epiphytal. Acaulescent, of free bold habit, the plant forming a tuft of ever- 
green leaves which spring up from the crown of the roots. Leaves distichous, 
ligulate oblong, bluntish, thick, shining, keeled beneath, spreading, greyish green, 
faintly tesselated. Scape erect, branched, pubescent, of a purplish crimson, bearing 
about three blossoms, each having at the base a concave ovate bract. ers large, 
high-coloured, and showy; sepals (dorsal) roundish ovate, white, flushed with dull red, 
and marked with numerous longitudinal deep crimson-red bands or stripes, the apex 
incurved, the connate sepal smaller and paler in colour; petals linear ligulate, 
-attenuated at the apex, distinctly ciliated about three inches long, spreading, deflexed 
with a partial twist, vinous crimson, veined with crimson-purple and having several 
blackish hairy warts, especially on the upper edge; lip oblong, bluntly pouch-shaped, 
‘Spreading at the upper edge which is rounded behind, greenish and slightly _veiny, 
the anterior portion of a deep crimson or vinous red. Staminode obcordate with an 
apiculus, pale reddish green, deflexed. | 
CYPRIPEDIUM sELLIGERUM, Veitch, Catalogue of New Plants, 1878, 13, with 
figure; Gardeners’ Chronicle, n.s., xix., 776, fig. 133; Moore, Florist and Pomo- 
logist, 1878, 85, with figure; Williams, Orchid-grower’s Manual, 6 ed. 257, with 
gure. 
Hybrid Cypripediums have become numerous, and many new forms are being 
from time to’ time flowered. We have figured some of them, but there are many 
more which yet remain to be done. They are great favourites, and deservedly so, with 
many orchidophilists. We now illustrate one which was raised several years since; it 
is a very distinct and free-blooming variety, and one which also is easy of cultivation. 
There are several forms of this hybrid, but the one we now figure we consider to 
be the original. This was raised between C. philippinense (levigatum) and C. bar- 
batum by the Messrs. Veitch & Sons, Chelsea, who sent it out some years ago. 
Our drawing was taken from a plant in the Victoria and Paradise Nurseries. 
Cypripedium selligerum is a distinct hybrid plant of bold, massive habit, ever- 
green, with broad, thick, shining, faintly tessellated leaves, as in C. philippinense, 
and erect, blackish crimson pubescent flower scapes, which bear from two tw three 
large flowers. The dorsal sepal is white, with broad blackish crimson Veins ; the 
strongly ciliated petals are about three inches long, deflexed with a partial twist, 
vinous red, veined with crimson-purple, and having several blackish marginal warts, 
especially on the upper side; while the lip or pouch is similar in shape to that of 
C. barbatum, but of a lighter red colour. This plant blooms at different times of 
