origin, but the species to which we attribute its parentage has not been fov 
growing in the neighbourhood. Much difference of opinion has arisen about 
varieties of this plant, but as only two have been brought to us to ob 
the whole stock from, it must be from cultivation alone that we have so many 
different forms varying both in the size of the blooms as well as in the depth of 
their colouring. The plant which we here figure flowered in the Victoria and 
Paradise Nurseries during the summer of 1893. 
Cypripedium superbiens is a fine bold kind of the coriaceous-leaved section of | 
this genus, and was one of the earlier arrivals, and still maintains its place as one 
of the finest amongst the numerous forms of these Slipper Orchids which are to be 
found in cultivation at the present day. It is a plant with bold leaves arranged 
in a two-ranked fashion, which are tessellated on the upper side, but of an uniform 
pale green beneath. The flowers are large and beautifully coloured, blooming from 
the month of May up till the end of July, the plant lasting fully half that time 
in full perfection. We grow it in a moist part of the East Indian house, and we 
find it to like good heat and moisture—in fact, when lacking the latter elem 
we have found it to become affected by attacks of the red thrips, which is eve 
more injurious to these plants, if possible, than the black thrips, and the marks 
made by them show even more on account of the pale green of the leaves. The 
plant likes good drainage, which should be kept in a free and open condition, using 
for soil some good brown peat-fibre and sphagnum moss in about equal proportion 
with a little light turfy loam from which the greater portion of the fine soil has 
been beaten, and to be kept in a fairly moist part of the East Indian house, 
