THE ORCHID REVIEW. 309 
CYPRIPEDIUM x ATROPOS AND C, xX TAUTZIANUM. 
I aM sending you two blooms of Cypripedium X Atropos (together with 
the two parents) as an example of the wide divergence possible, both as to 
form and colour, in the flowers of seedlings emanating from the same 
seed-pod. 
The influence of both parents, Cypripedium x Ashb iz expansum 
(Cookson’s variety) @ and Cypripedium purpuratum 3, can be readily 
seen in each of the seedling flowers, but while in the smaller flower the 
good qualities of each parent appear to be compressed, in the larger flower 
it is the less desirable qualities that are reproduced. The inference to be 
drawn from this is that the purchase of unflowered seedlings, even where 
the parentage is undoubted, is to some extent a lottery, and that the raiser 
of a batch of seedlings may find some among the number by no means 
equal to others, while, on the other hand, if the first seedling to flower is 
a disappointment, there is no occasion to despair as to the quality of those 
still unflowered. 
I still hope to flower one of the batch of seedling Cypripedium barbatum 
2 X Cypripedium niveum ¢ (Orch. Rev. III., p. 201), in which the 
influence of the pollen parent will be unmistakable. I have so far flowered 
eight out of the fourteen seedlings raised, and the only effect of Cypripedium 
niveum that I can perceive is that the climbing propensity of Cypripedium 
barbatum appears to be completely checked, the plants remaining squat. 
Twin-flowered spikes are more common with me this year than usual, 
as I have at the present time spikes of Cypripedi Harrisi 
C. X cenanthum superbum, C. x Laforcadei, C. x T. B. Haywood, 
C. x Ashburtonie..calospilum, C. x A. expansum, and C. x Mas- 
ereelianum, all carrying two flowers. 
x REGINALD YOUNG. 
Liverpool, 
September 15th, 1896. 
[The flowers sent are very interesting. The small flower of C. x 
Atropos is like the original one described at page 292 of our last volume 
(where the history of the plant is given), and bears a remarkable 
resemblance to the pollen parent in size, shape, and colour, though the petals 
are narrower and scarcely spotted at the base, and the dorsal sepal is less 
reflexed, and has broader stripes. The large one is much nearer the seed 
Parent in size and shape, though it has more of the purple tint of the 
Pollen parent—in fact, in colour and markings it is about intermediate 
between the small flower and the seed-parent, with the dorsal sepal more 
teflexed at the sides. These features render the group very striking and 
