DECEMBER, 1912.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 359 
history, as promised to Mr. Wilson some time ago. The name Cypripedium 
macranthum seems to have been extended so as to cover a small group of 
allied species which are somewhat difficult to determine from dried 
specimens. These are C. tibeticum, King (Bot. Mag., t. 8070), oF 
himalaicum, Rolfe (King and Pantl. Orch. Sikkim, viii. t. 448), the Japanese 
C. speciosum, Rolfe (Bot. Mag., t. 8386), and the present one, which was 
partly included by Franchet (Journ. de Bot., 1894, p- 233), followed by the 
writer (Journ. Linn. Soc., xxxvi. p. 66). In a dried state C. Franchetii is 
easily separated from C. macranthum by its more copiously villous stems, 
a character also found in the yellow-flowered C. luteum, Franch., to which 
two fruiting specimens of C. Franchetii were also wrongly referred, until, im 
company with Mr. Wilson, a more careful comparison of the characters and 
habitat of the two species was made. It has also been partly confused with 
C. fasciolatum, Franch., for when the latter was described (Journ. de Bot., 
1894, p. 232), the author remarked that the species occurred in two forms, 
one having very large flowers and a globose lip (this being the type), the 
other smaller flowers. The latter belongs to C. Franchetii. Both are 
included under No. 922 of a collection made by Farges in the district of Tchen- 
keou-tin, at about 7300 feet elevation. The following are the localities of 
specimens of C. Franchetii, Rolfe, preserved at Kew: China: Prov. 
Szechuen, woods of Heou-pin, near Tchen-keou, Farges, 134, 509, and 922 
in part; Prov. Hupeh; Fang and Hsingshan, Henry, 5391 E; Fang, 
7000 ft., Henry, 6740; Western Hupeh, Wilson, 1884. R. A. ROLFE. 
XYLOBIUM BRACTESCENS. 
A pistinct and striking Xylobium was exhibited by Messrs. Sander & Sons, 
St. Albans, at the R.H.S. meeting held on November 5th and 6th last. It 
is believed to have been sent from Peru by M. Forget, and on comparison 
it proves identical with one which flowered in the garden of the 
Horticultural Society in October, 1842, when it was described by Lindley 
under the name of Maxillaria bractescens (Bot. Reg., 1842, Misc., p. 84). 
It had been sent from Loxa by Hartweg. At that period Xylobium was 
regarded as a section of Maxillaria, but it differs so markedly in its strongly 
plicate leaves and racemose inflorescence that its distinctness has long been 
recognised, and the species has recently been transferred to Xylobium by 
Krinzlin (Orchis, ii. p. 129). It is one of the largest species in the genus, 
the plant exhibited by Messrs. Sander bearing a scape 24 feet high, with a 
raceme of eighteen flowers. The sepals and petals are rather over an inch 
long, and greenish yellow in colour, while the lip is obscurely three-lobed, 
and bears seven to nine strongly undulate fleshy keels, which are reddish 
brown in colour. The species is remarkable for its long narrow bracts, from 
14 to 2 inches long, in reference to which the name was given.—R. A. R. 
