PL. CCLXXVII. 
CYPRIPEDIUM x DESBOISIANUM hort. 
M. FR. DESBOIS’ CYPRIPEDIUM. 
CYPRIPEDIUM. Perigonii explanati foliola exteriora lateralia uninervia labello supposita libéra vel inter se 
connata, supremum conforme quinquenerve, interiora angustiora. Labellum maximum inflatum calceiforme. Gynostema 
breve cernuum apice trifidum lobis lateralibus subtus antheriferis intermedio sterili petaloideo dilatato. Antherae loculis 
discretis subbivalves. Pollen pulvereo-granulosum, stigmate deltoideo gynostematis faciem infra antheras occupante. 
Capsula unilocularis, placentis parietalibus tribus. Semina plurima scobiformia. 
Herbae in hemispherae borealis temperatis et frigidiusculis terris obviae, in America nonnihil frequentiores, 
radicibus fibrosis, caulibus foliosis, floribus magnis speciosis. 
Linn. Gen. 1015. — Endl., Gen. Plant., 1618. 
Cypripedium X Desboisianum. Hybridum inter C. venustum Ç et C. Boxallii atratum çf productum. 
Cypripedium X Desboisianum, Hort., Journal des Orch., I, p. 343. 
he flowing tide of the products of hybridisation places the nomenclature 
of Orchids in serions danger, much more than the erroneous or contra- 
dictory désignations of the first epoch of discovery. By degrees, and for 
some years, especially, the number of hybrids has become so considérable, that 
the most retentive memory, or the most exact inspection, will ere long be 
insufficient to distinguish tbem from each other. More are continually appearing, 
moreover, and the différences between tbem, and the species from wbich they 
arise, become slight and difficult to lay hold of ; they bridge over the intervals 
whicb separate them, and complété the transition. 
The crosses between the same two species are already variable enôugh, 
from the point of view of colour, and also of form, according as they proceed 
from one or the other variety, and the limits between the different forms will 
be still more invisible when the hybrids shall also hâve been combined between 
themselve^ and with other species. 
Cattleya X parthenia , which we described in the preceding number, furnishes 
a most conclusive example of this, as it is impossible to discern any relationship 
whatever between two plants issuing from the same seed-pod. When the cases 
of this kind become more numerous, it will be no longer possible for even a 
good judge to indicate the origin and the name of an Orchid. 
The raiser of Cattleya X parthenia , M. Alfred Bleu, should be better able 
than most others to enlighten us on these points, because the numerous 
products which he still holds in reserve will make a sensation in the future. 
More recently he has pointed out to us the flowering of a new hybrid, Cypri¬ 
pedium X amabile, of which one of the parents, C. X javanico-superbiens, is itself 
a hybrid. 
