CYPRIPEDIUM SELLIGERUM MAJUS. 
[PLaTE 483. ] 
Garden Hybrid. 
Epiphytal. Acaulescent, quite destitute of pseudobulbs, leaves two-ranked, slightly 
channelled above, carinate beneath, coriaceous in texture, strap-shaped, acute, soft 
green in the ground colour, tessellated with a deep shade of green. Flowers in 
pairs, and in this variety very robust, and of a bright and cheerful colour, dorsal 
sepal somewhat orbicular, white, faintly tinged with pale green at the base, having 
numerous purple stripes running up it, these stripes having lateral branches which 
give them a somewhat feathery appearance, the lower sepal much smaller, but 
similarly coloured; petals strap-shaped, depressed, edged with a row of blackish 
hairs; the colour is rosy purple with darker veins, having a row of blackish purple 
wart-like spots along the upper margin; lip pouch-like, brownish purple, being 
veined of a deeper hue, paler beneath. Staminode pale green, bearing a few 
scattered hairs. 
CYPRIPEDIUM SELLIGERUM Magus, Veitch’s Catalogue of New Plants, 1878. 
Lindena, i, t. 22.  Reichenbachia, ii., t. 54. L’Orchidophile, 1890, p. 272, 
This is a handsome garden hybrid raised by Mr. Seden, the worthy successor to 
the late Mr. Dominy, at Messrs. Veitch and Sons, of the King’s Road, Chelsea. It is 
a cross between Cypripedium barbatum and C. philippinense (C. laevigatum), and 
fully bears out what has been written about it, which is that it is one of the 
most stately Cypripediums in cultivation. This plant is much superior to the 
original C. selligerum, figured by us in the sixth volume of this work, at Pl. 255, 
partaking more of the characters of the first-named parent; indeed, it might have 
been the inverted cross, both in regard to the broad dorsal sepal of the flowers as 
well as in the tessellated foliage, which in the figure just quoted are plain 
green, without any tessellation at all. The present plate was sketched by Miss 
G. Hamilton from a plant which flowered in our own collection at the Victoria 
and Paradise Nurseries, Upper Holloway, during the remarkable season of 1893, 
but to which cannot be attributed any reason for its producing such fine and 
showy flowers, for we have had the same plant bloom equally as well in seasons 
that have been far less favourable and propitious. 
Cypripedium selligerum majus is an evergreen plant, belonging to the coriaceous- 
leaved section of the Lady’s Slipper Orchids, and it is very stately and handsome. 
It is a free-growing plant and a profuse bloomer when treated to good heat and 
a moist atmosphere. It is not surprising that this plant enjoys the heat of the 
