PL. CCLXXXV. 
CYPRIPEDIUM x ENGELHARDTAE L. LIND. 
MADAME D’ENGELHARDT’S CYPRIPEDIUM. 
CYPRIPEDIUM. Vide supra, p. 31. 
Cypripedmm X Engelhardtae. Hybridum novum C. insignis varietate quadam, verisimiliter C, insigni Maulei, 
et C. Spiceriano, arte productum. 
Cypripedium Engelhardtae L. Lind., supra, p. 35. 
e announced recently to the readers of the Lindenia the appearance 
of this new hybrid, and we are happy to be able to give them to-day 
the reproduction, because we doubt not that tbey will share the opinion 
amateurs who had the opportunity of seeing it in flower in the month of 
May, and who hâve deemed it worthy to be placed in the front rank of this genus. 
That which gives a particular interest to the subject of hybridisation in the 
family of Orchids, the importance of which is not yet sufficiently recognised, is 
that the différences in the varieties employed as parents reproduces itself to a 
considérable extent in the offspring, creating very different forms conformably to 
the varieties chosen. This peculiarity promises to furnish an infinité variety 
among the hybrids, and particularly those of the genus Cypripedium, in which 
the varieties are so numerous that the Monograph recently published by M. Angiolo 
Pucci, of Florence, enumerates "up to seventy for a single species, namely 
C. insigne. It is precisely from this species that C. X Engelhardtae has arisen, and 
the variety which has served as the seed parent is very probably the variety Maulei. 
The other parent is one of the best known and most appreciated species of the 
genus, C. Spicerianum. This new hybrid is the third issue from this excellent 
cross, which has already produced C. X Leeanum and C. X Leeanum var. superbum. 
The character which clearly séparâtes it from the other forms in the group, 
and which gives it a particular charm, is the brilliant golden yellow colour which 
covers the petals and the lip, and gives to the flower an exceptional splendour. 
The large dorsal sepal, which is reflexed at the base, as in C. Spicerianum , is 
hnely speckled with violet-purple, and traversed from base to summit by a médian 
band of the same colour; it bears at its base an extensive area of clear green. The 
rest of the flower recalls rather C. insigne Maulei, except the colour, which is unique. 
C. x Engelhardtae , like the majority of hybrids, is very robust and flori- 
ferous. We may also add that the flowers attain a superior size to the average of 
those in the Leeanum group. 
We hâve dedicated this remarkable novelty to Madame Constantin d’Engel- 
hardt, the wife of one of the principal amateurs of Orchids in Russia. 
