210 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGHST. 
[ Septembeii, 
blooming, it is necessary that the plants be exposed to full light and free circu¬ 
lation of air to the end of June ; and if after July, the plants being gradually 
inured, they can be exposed to the full sun and a southern aspect, the certainty 
of their blooming will be much increased. During the season of active growth 
the plants, if well rooted, may be assisted with weak manure or soot-water once 
or twice a week; and even in the blooming season an occasional dose of manure- 
water will be of service. The blooming season over, the plants, if not in heat, 
may be placed in a vinery or other forcing house, syringing them lightly, but not 
giving much water at the root. As soon as the leading shoots show indication 
of growth, go over the plants, and pick out the point of each branchlet; keep 
them in the same temperature ; and, as the buds begin to break, increase the 
supply of water. Should the plants require more pot-room, let them have it 
when the young shoots have just started into growth ; keep them in a moist 
growing temperature for a few weeks, and then gradually inure them to full 
exposure in the open air as before directed. In this manner, using only the soil 
before described, the Daphne may be grown and bloomed as freely as a common 
pelargonium; but, unless it is distinctly understood that the plant must have a 
season of growth, maturation, and blooming, success in pots is impossible.— 
W. P. Ayres, Nottingham. 
LADY^S SLIPPERS— Chapter V. 
present subject, Cypripedium villosum, is a free-growing and fres- 
blooming species, very useful in collections on account of its ■winter¬ 
flowering habit. It is a stemless plant, with ligulate acute sharply-keeled 
green leaves, which are upwards of a foot in length, and large showy 
flowers. The scape is shorter than the leaves, and shaggy with purple hairs ; 
the bract compressed boat-shaped, and dotted with purple. The dorsal sepal is 
greenish, stained from the base upwards in lines and reticulations with dark- 
brown purple, the edge colourless and ciliated, the keel villous, and the inter¬ 
vening space glandular hairy ; the petals are spathulate, undulated, unequal¬ 
sided, with a brown purple median line, the upper edge pale sienna, with faint 
purple lines, the lower half somewhat greener, smooth on both sides, varnished 
in front, ciliated, and having a tuft of purple hairs at the base on the lower side. 
The lip is of a dull pale yellowish ground-colour, with a suffused dash of 
brownish-purple, and varnished ; it is upwards of 2 in. long, and in. wide 
across the mouth, narrowed towards the apex, and with two obtuse erect side 
lobes obscurely veined with purple. The sterile stamen is greenish, obcordate 
mucronulate, slightly bearded at the base, papillose, and bearing near the centre 
a prominent blunt yellowish tubercle or horn. 
The present species is perhaps the most robust-growing of all the Lady’s 
Slippers in cultivation. It is a native of Moulmein, and consequently requires 
to be grown in the East Indian house. Like most others of this genus, C. villosum 
