THE ORCHID REVIEW. 141 
other parent, while the colour is about intermediate. Two forms of this 
hybrid have been described. 
QO. X stauroides appeared in the establishment of Messrs. F. Sander and 
Co., of St. Albans, and was mentioned by Reichenbach in a note, without 
any indication of its parentage. Shortly afterwards another form flowered 
in the same establishment, and was described as O. x stauroides var. 
Gravesianum, still without any indication of its parentage. I have seen it 
on several occasions and have no doubt it belongs here. 
O. x elegantius appeared with Messrs. Hugh Low and Co., of Clapton, 
in 1888, and Mr. Hugh Low immediately recognised it as a natural hybrid 
between O. Pescatorei and O. Lindleyanum, as Reichenbach informs us. It 
is like the preceding in shape, the colour of the flowers being sulphur-yellow, 
with a few brown blotches. 
The following are the references to this hybrid :— 
O. X stauroides, oo f. in Gard. Chron., 1887, i. p. 200 (in note); Var. Gravesianum, 
Rchb. f., 2.¢., 1887, ii. 7. 154. 
OLX ele aking Reb. f. in Gard. Chron., 1888, i. p. 200. 
(Zo be continued.) 
CYPRIPEDIUM SPECTABILE AND C. PUBESCENS AS 
POISONOUS PLANTS. 
A paper ‘‘ On the Poisonous Influence of Cypripedium spectabile and C. 
pubescens,” by D. T. MacDougal, appears in Part I. of Minnesota Botanical 
Studies. In consequence of various unconfirmed reports that these two 
species were poisonous, the author determined to put the matter to the test. 
On September 7th last he met with several well-grown plants of C. specta- 
bile, with newly formed seed-pods, and breaking off a robust specimen, the 
leaves were brushed lightly across the bared left arm. A slight tingling 
sensation was felt at the time, and fourteen hours later the arm was greatly 
swollen from the shoulder to the finger tips, and violently inflamed. Ten 
days of the most approved treatment were required to reduce it to its 
normal size, and the effects were perceptible a month later. The author 
observes that the severity of the test has prevented its repetition, and that 
he would have been satisfied of the poisonous influence of the plant with a 
much less pronounced result. On examination it was found that two forms 
of hairs were present in great abundance—one being pointed and easily 
broken off, the other gland-tipped, and both are infested with a filamentous 
fungus, though to what the poisonous effects are due is not precisely known. 
It is, however, suggested that these and other species of the genus are 
protected in a way that renders them unpleasant to grazing animals; and it 
has been repeatedly noticed that large numbers of these plants growing in 
woodland pastures have been found intact, while the surrounding herbage 
