THE ORCHID REVIEW. 355 
SELENIPEDIUM CAUDATUM WALLISII. 
(See FRONTISPIECE.) 
The plant represented in the frontispiece to the present volume is a very 
beautiful specimen of Selenipedium caudatum Wallisii, from the collection of 
J. T. Bennett-Poé, Esq., Holmwood, Cheshunt, which received a Cultural 
Commendation from the Royal Horticultural Society on June 11th last. 
The photograph has been kindly sent by Mr. Bennett-Poe, who remarks 
that he attributes his success to the liberal use of rough granular limestone, 
as in other respects quite the usual treatment is given. He very well 
points out that as the plant grows naturally on limestone rocks, it is only 
natural to use limestone in the potting materials. Similar treatment 
is given to most of the Cypripediums, and the plants thrive, and visitors 
remark on their vigour and health, so probably this limestone treatment 
has something to say to it. Whatever the cause, there can be no two 
opinions of the vigour and floriferousness of the beautiful specimen here 
illustrated. 
S. caudatum Wallisii was discovered by Gustav Wallis when travelling 
for M. J. Linden in Ecuador, about the year 1872, and four years later by 
Davis, a collector for Messrs. James Veitch & Sons, in the valley of 
Chinchao, in the Huanuco district of Peru, some distance further south. 
In the latter locality it occurs on the limestone rocks in full exposure to the 
sun’s rays, and where the range of temperature during the twenty-four 
hours is very considerable. It was described and figured by Reichenbach 
in 1873 as a distinct species under the name of Selenipedium Wallisii 
(Xen. Orch., ii., p. 189, t. 181), but it differs so little from S. caudatum 
except in colour that it can hardly be considered more than a marked 
variety of that species. The flowers are a little smaller, and much paler 
and more delicate in colour. The prevailing tint is a light yellowish-green, 
with the side lobes of the lip pure white, somewhat spotted with reddish- 
brown at the outer margin. It is said to have flowered for the first time in 
the collecion of C. Winn, Esq., The Uplands, Selly Hill, Birmingham. 
An excellent figure is given in the Orchid Album, viii., t- 380. 
It is now well known that the curious plant originally described as 
Uropedium Lindenii is a peloriate state of Selenipedium caudatum, in 
which the lip has become replaced by an ordinary petal, and, curiously 
enough, there is a precisely similar state of the variety Wallisii, which is 
illustrated in. Lindenia (vii., p.. 69, t. 321). It combines the structural 
details of the one with the colour of the other, and its appearance is very 
interesting. The peculiarity will in all probability prove permanent, as in 
the case of the earlier one, and in several other of these curious abnormal 
forms in other genera. 
