﻿June, igo 4 .] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 185 



the internodes being longer than the bracts. The inflorescence bears about 

 four flowers, over four inches in diameter, the sepals and petals spreading, 

 and rose-purple in colour, and the undulate lip rich purple-crimson, with a 

 large yellow disc, and some white round it, the junction between the white 

 and purple being formed by an abrupt very jagged line. Mr. Warner 

 remarks :— " We have found it to be a free bloomer, the flowers being also 

 more persistent than any of the other species with which we are 

 acquainted." It is allied to the Peruvian S. rosea, Pcepp. and EndL, with 

 which Lindley regarded it as synonymous, though Reichenbach disputes 

 this view. I only know it by the published descriptions and figures, and it 

 is hardly necessary to add that it is excessively rare. 



R. A. Rolfe. 



CYPRIPEDIUM CALCEOLUS x MACRANTHOS. 



In 1891 a very interesting pamphlet was published by M. William Barbey, 

 of Geneva, entitled " Cypripedium Calceolus X macranthos," containing 

 a description and coloured figure of what was believed to be a natural 

 hybrid between Cypripedium Calceolus and C. macranthos, the two 

 parents being also figured in colours. A year later living specimens of all 

 three were submitted to Kew, and a comparison fully confirmed M. Barbey's 

 views (Rolfe in Card. Chron., 1892, i., p. 394). The history of the plant is, 

 briefly, that about ten years previously the late M. Edmond Boissier 

 obtained a batch of C. macranthos, which were planted on the rock-work 

 of the garden at Valleyres. After several seasons they flowered, and 

 among them also appeared C. Calceolus and a third quite intermediate 

 form, which is the one now under discussion. It appears that in the birch 

 forests of Western Siberia, whence the plants were obtained, these two 

 species occur abundantly, intermixed. It is interesting to note that among 

 some plants of C. macranthos now flowering at Kew has appeared what is 

 evidently a form of the same hybrid, the agreement in all essential char- 

 acters being sufficiently close. What drew attention to it was the longer 

 and narrower somewhat twisted petals, narrower dorsal sepal, and some 

 differences in colouring. But a careful comparison raises the question 

 whether C. ventricosum may not have a similar origin. It was described 

 by Swartz as a species at the same time as C. macranthos in 1800 [Kongl. 

 Vet. Acad., Stockh., xxi., p. 251), the habitat being given as E. Siberia in each 

 case. The differences pointed out were that C. macranthos had the petals 

 shorter than the lip and the staminode cordate-acuminate, while in C. 

 ventricosum the petals were longer than the lip and the staminode sagittate 

 and concave. I have long been puzzled by the rarity of the latter ; there 

 is a single specimen at Kew, collected at the Ussuri River by Maack, and 



