1871. ] 
CYPEIPEDIUM NIYEUM. 
157 
ing the last ten years many very fine species have been introduced, but that which 
we now faithfully portray is at once the most distinct and chastely beautiful of 
them all so far as yet made known. Cypripedium niveum is a plant of dwarf and 
compact habit. The leaves are oblong-obtuse, about 6 in. long, dark green, 
freckled and streaked with silvery white on the upper side, while the under side 
is of a uniform dark purple. The flower stem attains a height of six inches or 
more, and usually produces one flower, occasionally two. The dorsal sepal is 
large, broadly ovate, of a soft satiny white, freckled on the back with rosy purple ; 
the lower sepals are considerably smaller than the dorsal one, but of the same 
colour; the petals are broad, oblong, obtuse and emarginate, satiny white, more 
or less profusely dotted with rosy purple or violet; the lip is bluntly saccate, 
about as large as a dove’s egg, and coloured like the rest of the flower; the 
staminode is white, stained with clear lemon-colour. The figure represents a 
fine specimen shown at South Kensington in April last, by Mr. Ward, gardener 
to D. Berrington, Esq., Pont-y-Go'itres, Abergavenny, and which deservedly 
received a First-Class Certificate. For the use of the woodcut, we have to thank 
the proprietors of the Journal of Horticulture. 
The compost recommended in previous articles for members of this family 
should be used for this plant. The pots in which it is planted should be 
drained well, and a liberal supply of water, both from the watering-can and 
syringe, must be given during bright weather. During the growing season the 
plants should be kept in the East India house, but afterwards a cooler temperature 
will suit them, and during this period the supply of water must be diminished. 
It will be scarcely necessary to warn amateurs against using the syringe to these 
