THE ORCHID REVIEW. 199 
CYPRIPEDIUM CURTISII AND ITS ALLIES. 
THE great general resemblance be:ween Cypripedium superbiens, C. 
ciliolare, and C. Curtisii is well known, and some time ago a statement was 
made that the latter had been artificially produced by Mr. Alfred Bleu, by 
crossing the two former together. This, at the time, we pointed out, was 
obviously impossible (supra. II., p. 307), owing to C. Curtisii being a 
Sumatran plant, growing wild in quantity, while C. ciliolare is a native of 
the Philippines. A possible explanation of the statement which we suggested 
was that a hybrid with the parentage above-named might be mistaken for 
C. Curtisii, owing to its general resemblance to the two supposed parents. 
A hybrid sent by Messrs. F. Sander and Co., St. Albans, throws some little 
light on the question. Its parentage is believed to be C. ciliolare xX 
Curtisii, yet the flower is so much like C. X Cymatodes (syn. beechense) as 
to suggest the question whether it is not the latter. The correctness or 
otherwise of the alleged parentage is a point which we cannot decide, but there 
is nothing in the flower which suggests any error in the record, and 
assuming it to be correct, it exhausts the list of possible combinations 
between the three species, as will be seen by the following diagram :— 
A 
t 4 ‘is 
2 t 6 3 
1.=C, superbiens. 4.=C. X Lachmee. 
2.=C. ciliolare. 5-=C. X Cymatodes. 
3-=C., Curtisii. 6.=C. X new hybrid. 
As the three species given in the left-hand column resemble each other so 
closely, it necessarily follows that their hybrids cannot be very distinct, 
and when the well-known variability of hybrids is taken into consider- 
ation, one can easily imagine that certain individuals derived 
even from different crosses might be practically indistinguishable. 
Reverting fora moment to the supposed C. Curtisii of artificial origin, we 
suggest either that it was C. x Lachmee, and not C. Curtisii, or that it was 
C. Curtisii and not a hybrid, and it would be interesting to have the point 
cleared up. Whether it is worth while to hybridise together such very 
similar species may be left for those who make such crosses to decide, but it 
is easy to predict that nothing very distinct can result. 
SE cee _cxeth SD 
