56 THE .ORCHID® REVIEW. [FEBRUARY, 1923. 
CyPRIPEDIUM WorsLEyi.—One of the finest Cypripedium hybrids yet 
seen has appeared amongst a batch of seedlings originally raised by Mr. 
Branch in the collection of the late Mr. Wm. R. Lee, of Plumpton Hall, 
Heywood. It is said to be across between Cyp. Earl of Tankerville and 
Lady Dillon, though the influence of the former is not apparent. But 
whatever slight doubt is attached to the parentage there is no question 
regarding the majestic result now seen in the first of the batch to flower. 
The dorsal sepal is over 3+ inches in width, porcelain white, with the basal 
area greenish, and boldly marked with bright reddish-purple spots. The 
petals are unusually well-developed, being 3% inches long and 1$ inches 
wide, with a purplish tinge and darker venation. The large labellum is 
similarly marked and coloured. This grand flower was carried on a stalk 
fully 18 inches in height, and when one takes into consideration the fact 
that the plant is as yet in only a three-inch pot, there is every good reason 
to believe that the above dimensions will be exceeded in future years. 
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THE WonDERS OF ORCHIDS.—“‘ For what purpose can the world have 
been adorned with these Orchideous plants? To man or animals they are 
scarcely ever of any known use. No honey is secreted by their flowers ; 
neither poison, medicine, nor food, are collected in the recesses of their 
stems ; and their very seeds seem unfit for feeding even the smallest bird. 
We can scarcely suppose them provided for the purification of the unwhole- 
some atmosphere of the forest recesses in which they delight, for their 
organization is that of plants whose leaves perform their vital actions too 
slowly to effect a purpose. For what can they have been formed, unless to 
delight the sense of man, to gratify his eye by their gay colours and fantastic 
forms, and to show the inexhaustible fertility of that creative power which 
we recognise everywhere in nature. If this be not the object of those 
countless changes of form and colour which the Orchis tribe exhibits, we 
shall scarcely comprehend why in the genus Oncidium the lip bears at its 
base a collection of tubercles which are not only different in every species, 
but so strangely varied that ‘eye of newt and toe of frog’ are the least 
singular of the forms that lie cowering in the bosom of their petals; the 
heads of unknown animals, reptiles of unheard-of figures, coils of snakes 
rising as if to dart upon the curious observer, may all be seen in the 
blossoms of the various species, whose very flowers may be likened to un- 
earthly insects on the wing.’’—Lindley (Bot. Reg. 1833, t. 1569 )- 
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MANCHESTER AND NORTH OF ENGLAND ORCHID SOCIETY.—Meetings 
will be held on the following dates :—February Ist, 15th; March ist, 15th; 
April 5th, 19th; May 3rd, 17th; June 7th, 21st. All exhibits must be 
staged before twelve a.m. 
