362 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
CYPRIPEDIUM NIVEUM AS A PARENT. 
At the present time the hybrids in which Cypripedium niveum forms a 
part, are fairly numerous. Unfortunately there is considerable doubt, in 
several instances, as to the identity of the other parent, but taking them as 
recorded, and alphabetically, as far as possible, as to the name of the joint- 
parent, we come first to the hybrids in which C. Argus and niveum are 
combined. 
These consist of C. X Gravesiz and var. superbum (0. R., ii., pp. 81, 
164), C. xX Ruth Ayling (O. R., iii., p. 127) and C. xX Mdlle. Nancy 
Descombes, of Continental origin (Hansen’s Orch. Hyb., p. 149). The 
first of these is figured in the Orchid Review (ii., p. 81), and shows the 
influence of C. niveum plainly enough, even if the other parent is not so 
easily traced. 
The combination of C. barbatum and niveum is to me. particularly 
interesting, as I have been trying for some years to raise and flower 
seedlings of this cross with the influence of C. niveum fully indicated in 
the bloom. It may be well to state here that C. niveum first flowered in 
this country in the spring of 1869 (Veitch Man. Orch., iv., p. 40), in which 
year the first hybrid Cypripedium, C. xX Harrisianum (villosum ? X 
barbatum ¢) appeared (see O. R.,i., p. 6). The first hybrid Cypripedium 
with C. niveum as one of the parents, was C. xX microchilum, which 
flowered in 1882 (O. R. i., pp. 99, 100). C. X Tautzianum (niveum 
barbatum 3) flowered in 1886. Putting these facts together, it may, I 
think, be safely inferred that hybridisers have been attempting to raise 
plants of C. x Tautzianum for many years past, both in trade establish- 
ments and amateur collections. Have they been successful ? or is there 
some want of potentiality in the pollen of C. niveum, or in the constitu- 
tion of the plant? I wonder how many people have raised and flowered 
C. X Tautzianum true. There are the recorded instances of this cross 
being raised by Messrs. Veitch (Veitch Man. Orch., iv., p. 98), of C. X 
Madame Van Houtte, probably the same cross, of which only one plant was 
raised (Veitch, 1l.c., p. go), and of C. X Tautzianum lepidum (niveum ? 
barbatum Warneri ¢) (Will. Orch. Gr. Man., ed. 7, p. 306). It seems 
somewhat curious that with C. niveum as the seed parent, the lip or pouch 
of C. x Tautzianum should be dark purple, but, after all, it is only a case 
of a child taking after its father. 
Referring to my own hybridising records. I find that during the years 
18q1 to 1896, inclusive, I crossed C. barbatum with the pollen of C. niveum 
on twelve occasions, eight of these proving failures, inasmuch as no seed- 
lings were produced: . The first:seedlings from the above cross appeared in 
May, 1892, already alluded to in these pages (O. R., iii., p. 201; iv., p. 3093 
