134 _THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
difterent. They measure 2} inches in diameter, and the colour is pale 
greenish-yellow, with a faint, lilac tessellation all over, becoming more 
suffused with lilac at the base of the segments and column. The front lobe 
of the lip is pale greenish-yellow with two rounded apical lobes, the side 
lobes triangular, the disc with five ridges, and the foot of the column with 
‘a dull, maroon-purple blotch, and a broad, deep-yellow, transverse line 
between it andthe column. Thus in shape it most resembles V. ccerulea, 
except for the apical lobes of the lip, which latter, together with the 
colour, show the influence of V. Bensoni. 
I strongly suspect that the plant described as V. X amcena by Mr. J. 
O’Brien (Gard. Chron., 1897, xxii., p. 226) is a distinct variety of the same 
hybrid. It is said to have been “‘ imported by Messrs. Linden, of Brussels, 
along with V. Roxburghii and V. coerulea,” and was supposed to be a 
natural hybrid between them. There is, however, the insuperable difficulty 
that the two species grow in quite different districts, V. Roxburghii being a 
common plant of the plains of Bengal, and extending southwards to South 
India and Ceylon. V. coerulea was evidently one parent, and we are there- 
fore safe in assuming that V. X amcena came home with it. The latter is 
figured in Lindenia (t. 591), and, so far as I can see, the resemblance is 
rather to the spotted forms of V. Bensoni than to V. Roxburghii. It may 
be possible to clear this point up in future. 
R. A. ROLFE. 
CYPRIPEDILUM ACAULE. 
Tuis is a highly curious member of the Slipper family which is not at all 
common in cultivation, though flowers are occasionally seen, and one is 
sent by Mr. C. C. Hurst, Burbage Nurseries, Hinckley. The front of the 
pouch is folded in from the sides, and the two margins meet except for 4 
narrow slit about the middle, and they fold’ in such a way that the sides 
slope all round and down to the narrow opening. The staminode is very thin 
and tightly appressed in front to the lip, which is much constricted at this 
point, and entirely closed. The two basal openings are several times larger 
than the slit in front. The latter, however, owing to the peculiar conforma- 
tion just described opens inwards witha very slight pressure, so that a small 
bee alighting on the pouch and making for the opening would readily find 
ingress, but could not return, and must leave by way of the basal openings 
after first passing the stigma, and then getting besmeared with the sticky 
pollen. The second flower visited must inevitably become fertilised, but 
self-fertilisation is effectually prevented except in the very unlikely event of 
the bee returning a second time to the same flower. It is not am easy 
plant to cultivate for long together, but when seen at its best it is a 
very distinct and striking plant. 
