45. 
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PL. ‘CCCIX., 
CYPRIPEDIUM x VEXILLARIUM rcup. F. 
THE STANDARD-BEARER CYPRIPEDIUM. 
CYPRIPEDIUM. Vide Lindenia, Engl. ed., vol. I, p. 31. 
Cypripedium X vexillarium. Foliis ligulatis acutis apice bidentatis pallidis parce ac hieroglyphico tessellatis ; 
pedunculo velutino unifloro; sepalo dorsali latissimo ovali-acuto tantum extus glandipili, utrinque septemnervi; sepalo 
inferiori ovato acuto utrinque septemnervi; petalis oblongo-ligulatis undulatis reflexis, non arcuatis, ciliatis, circa 
limbum superiorem parce verrucosis; labelli ungue implicato, sacco ipso antice ostio retuso, utrinque juxta basin 
lacinula una; staminodio transverso antice retuso medio apiculato, utroque limbo introrsum semiforcipato, disco 
reticulato. 
Cypripedium vexillarium Reus. F. in Gard. Chron., 1870, p. 1373. — Gard. Chron., 1880, pt. I, pp. 780, 
781, fig. 35. — Gard. Chron., 1887, pt. I, p. 456, fig. 87. — Orchidophile, 1883, pp. 602, 603, cum. xyl. — 
VeITcH Man. Orch., pt. IV, p. 100, cum. xyl. 
oe Tel. his handsome hybrid was obtained by crossing Cypripedium barbatum 
We a with the pollen of C. Fairieanum. It flowered for the first time in 1870, 
foe§ about a year later than C. X Harrisianum, which is the only older 
hybrid in the genus. Both were raised by the late Mr Dominy, in the establish- 
ment of Messrs James VertrcH & Sons, of Chelsea, and their production was 
undoubtedly a great horticultural achievement. Artificial hybridisation of Orchids 
was then in its infancy, but the success of these early experiments served as 
a stimulus to greater efforts in the same field, with the result that during the 
next few years a large number of novelties appeared, and at the present time the 
number of hybrids in the genus Cypripedium is far greater than that of the 
species from which they have been derived. 
Cypripedium barbatum has been a very popular species with hybridists, 
and no less than nineteen different combinations with it have been effected. 
C. Fairieanum is too rare to have been utilised to such an extent, but five 
hybrids from it have already flowered, and as other crosses with it have been 
effected we may expect some further developments within the next few years. 
C. X vexillarium was followed in 1874 by C. X Arthurianum, a distinct and very 
beautiful seedling from C. insigne, whose influence in the hybrid is very strongly 
marked. C. x Niobe is a seedling from C. Spicerianum, which flowered in 1890, 
and it was quickly followed by two others, C. x H. Ballantine and C. X Funo, 
the former a seedling from C. purpuratwm, the latter from C. callosum. 
In the present hybrid the characters of the pollen parent decidedly prepon- 
derate. The pallid leaves are reticulated with green of a deeper shade. The 
flower is much like a large C. Fairieanum in shape, though somewhat modified 
in the direction of the other parent. The dorsal sepal is washed with purple on 
