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PL. DLIX. 
CYPRIPEDIUM VICTORIAE MARIAE uorr. 
CYPRIPEDIUM. Vide Lindenia, I, p. 17. 
Cypripedium Victoriae Mariae. Affine C. Chamberlainiano, a quo tamen florum colore differt. 
Cypripedium Victoriae Mariae Horr. Gard. Chron., 1893, I, p. 613. — Orch. Rev., Ap., 1896. 
—g he first appearance of C. Victoriae Mariae was in 1893 when it was 
*) exhibited at a Meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, London, on 
SEGy May 9" but did not receive any award. At that time C. Chamberlainianum 
was a quite recent discovery, and the new arrival was probably regarded as a 
variety of that species. It is however distinct enough so far as colour is concerned, 
and also perhaps by the length and formation of the inflorescence, to be con- 
sidered a true species, and such is the opinion which still seems to prevail in 
horticultural circles. 
The surprise caused by the introduction of C. Chamberlainianum five years 
ago will be remembered. Although that new species has not realised — far from 
it — all the hopes which had been centred in it, it still had the merit of repre- 
senting a type at once curious and quite out of the ordinary. Its flowers, more 
strange than beautiful, attracted attention by their singular form — the lip being 
inflated about the middle and attenuated to a point at the base, by the short hori- 
zontally twisted petals, the oval shield-like staminode, and by the novel and very 
varied colour largely suffused with a rosy-wine tint; also, and perhaps more 
particularly, by their ladder like arrangement on a very tall and many flowered 
scape, a character which would have been highly appreciated had the flowers only 
expanded several at a time. Unfortunately they only open in succession, and it is 
seldom that two are seen open together on the same peduncle. 
Notwithstanding these drawbacks the new features of C. Chamberlainianum 
have attracted the attention of orchidists, and especially hybridisers who may 
hope to make use of its qualities and to lessen its defects by crossing with more 
highly favoured species. 
C. Victoriae Mariae is chiefly distinguished by the colour of the upper sepal 
which is creamy white, washed and striped with green instead of violet rose, and 
spotted at the base with the latter colour; by the absence of pubescence on the 
outer surface of this organ; by the darker colour of the petals, which are neither 
spotted with rose nor pubescent, and by the colour of the more slender lip which 
is of a uniform deep violet red, while in C. Chamberlainianum, the lip is white 
and green, and covered with a multitude of violet rose dots, especially towards 
the tip. 
RO 
UF 
