CYPRIPEDIUM STONEI PLATYTAENIUM, 
[PuatE 496. ] 
Native of Sarawak, Borneo. 
Terrestrial. Leaves strap-shaped, twelve to eighteen inches long, coriaceous in 
texture, and bright green. Scapes nearly two feet long, dull purple, bearing three 
to five flowers. racts lanceolate, acuminate, sheathing. The dorsal sepal cordate, 
acuminate, white, usually with several broad blackish crimson streaks, which show 
through on both sides, lower sepals similar; petals linear, about six inches in length, 
which are drooping, with black hairs on the margin towards the base, a rich tawny 
yellow for more than half the length, the points brownish crimson ; lip pouch-like, 
rose-colour, veined and reticulated with crimson, passing into white beneath, the 
infolded lobes of the mouth narrow, white. Staminode oblong, yellowish white, 
fringed with thick short hairs. 
Var. PLATyTAENIUM.—In this form the flowers are much larger, being some ten 
inches across the petals, and of a brighter colour. Sepals are broader, with bolder 
streaks ; the dorsal sepal an inch-and-a-half broad, boldly streaked with brownish 
crimson, the lower sepal being larger than in the typical plant; petals an inch broad, 
white, tinged with yellow, profusely spotted and blotched with dark red-crimson, 
spots and blotches running into each other towards the tips. 
CYPRIPEDIUM STONEI PLATYTAENIUM, Reichenbach fil, in Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1867, 
p. 1118. Warners’ Select Orchidaceous Plants, iii. t. 14. Floral Magazine, ns., 
t. 414. Xenia Orchidacea, ii., p- 153, t. 161. Veitch’s Manual of Orchidaceous 
Plants, woodcut, iv., p. 50. Williams’ Orchid Grower's Manual, 7th ed., p. 303. 
Cypripedium Stonei platytaenium. This variety cannot be called the poor 
man’s Orchid, for we know of one or two specimens which exist which cannot be 
purchased under four figures, and we scarcely envy the position of those having such 
valuable plants under their care, for sometimes they become diseased and soon drop 
off, and all efforts to temporise or to stay the effects of the disease are quite 
unavailing. This plant has never been imported more than once. It was an 
accidental sport we should imagine, for we do not consider there is any reason to 
suppose it is a hybrid. A plant of it realised 140 guineas at the sale of the late 
Mr. Day’s collection in 1881. A little later on a plant was again sold for 120 
guineas, the first one in the first collection, and the second one in the second collection. 
“The variety was imported with a lot of Cypripedium Stonet from Sarawak, in 
1863, by Messrs. Low and Co., of Clapton. Some of the plants of this importation 
Were purchased by the late Mr. Day, and amongst them—unknown to himself at 
the time—this superb variety, which for several years afterwards consisted of a 
single specimen, the only one known to have been imported. 
