8 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
CYPRIPEDIUM INSIGNE AND ITS VARIETIES. 
THE varieties of Cypripedium insigne have become surprisingly numerous 
during the last few years, in fact recent importations of the so-called 
‘‘ montanum ” type have shown an amount of variation totally unexpected, 
especially when it is remembered that the species had been in cultivation 
for something like forty years before the first one (Maulei) was described, 
and that for many years afterwards they could be counted on the fingers of 
one hand. The recent accessions to the ranks have given a great stimulus 
to the cultivation of this useful old autumn-flowering plant—just such an 
one as was needed, in fact, for it yields to no other Orchid in the ease with 
which it can be grown. How great an interest centres in these varieties at 
the present time may be inferred from the fact that over twenty of them 
have recently come into our hands, and we have therefore in the present 
paper tried to give an account of the principal ones hitherto described. 
The typical Cypripedium insigne (Wall., ex Lindl. Coll. Bot., t. 32) was 
sent from the Calcutta Botanic Garden, by Dr. Wallich, and flowered for 
the first time in England, in the Liverpool Botanic Garden, in the autumn 
of 1820. It is characterised by having the apical third, or rather less, white, 
and the remainder light green with rather numerous dusky brown spots. 
C. i. Maulei (T. Moore in Fl. Mag., 1861, t. 57) flowered with Messrs. 
Maule and Sons, of Bristol, in 1860, and received a First-class Certificate 
from the Royal Horticultural Society. It differs in having the green area 
reduced in size, so that the white extends nearly to the base on either side, 
and leaves the uppermost spots clear purple, instead of purple-brown. The 
spots are also larger and fewer in number. 
C. i, Chantini (Rafarin in Rev. Hort., 1866, p. 429, also. 1878, p. 130, 
with plate) appeared among a number of imported plants purchased by M. 
Chantin, a nurseryman of Paris, from Messrs. James Veitch and Sons, of 
Chelsea. It has a larger dorsal sepal than the variety Maulei, which it 
otherwise much resembles, except that the green area is rather more reduced, 
so as to leave a few of the spots clear purple along the sides. Afterwards it 
received the name of C. i. Veitchianum (FI. des Serres, xxi. p. 72). 
Scarcely, if at all, different from the preceding is C. i. punctato-violaceum 
(Gard. Chron., 1882,-ii..p. 717, fig. 127; Orchid Album, vi. t. 278), which was 
also confounded with C. i. Maulei before its characters were properly under- 
Stood. Although not described till afterwards, it would appear that this was 
the first variety of C. insigne known, as it is said to have appeared among 
a small importation made by Messrs. E. G. Henderson and Son, in 1855, 
though it was not until 1869 that a small number of plants were distributed. 
C. i. aureum (Flor. and Pomol., 1882, p. 75) is a distinct and attractive 
form, which received a First-class Certificate from the Royal Botanic Society 
in March, 1882, when exhibited by Mr. W. Bull, of Chelsea. _ It differs from 
