Cypripedium chloroneurum is a dwarf compact-habited plant, with evergreen foliage about six inches in length, beautifully variegated with closely chequered markings of dark and light green. The flowers are produced in January and February, and continue on for several weeks. The colours are distinct and attractive, the broad flat dorsal sepal being of a bright lively pale green striped with darker green nerves and bordered with white, the petals suffused with purple on the upper half and marked with black marginal warts, and the purplish lip freely ornamented with bold dark purple reticulations, altogether presenting a remarkably effective appearance.
This novel hybrid grows freely when potted in rough fibrous peat with good drainage. When in vigorous growth it requires a liberal supply of water at the roots. Propagation is accomplished by dividing the plants after they have finished blooming and are ready to start into fresh growth; they can then be divided with safety by cutting off a back growth with a leading shoot in front of it, but care must be taken in cutting that the remaining portion of the plant is provided with an eye so placed as to break and form a new growth. When this young growth has been made, the divided plant may be shaken out from the old soil and potted. The offshoots should be placed in small pots until the following year, when, if they have made good growth, they may require to be repotted. They must be kept moist and in a plump condition, as they have only slender resources of their own to rely upon, but they root freely. As the plants get established they will require larger supplies of water, for which reason good drainage must be secured.
Aërides Leeanum.—This novelty has bloomed in the collection of G. W. L. Schofield, Esq., of New Hall, Hey, Rawtenstall, near Manchester, producing four flower-spikes. It is a beautiful object, its spikes of richly-coloured rosy pink blossoms hanging gracefully from the plant. It is very distinct from any other species of Aërides, and will doubtless become a great favourite. One of its great recommendations is that it blooms in the winter, which is not the case with the generality of these plants, their usual flowering season being during the spring and summer months. A. Leeanum is a small growing plant, but produces its spikes of blossoms very freely; and requiring, as it does, but a limited space for its accommodation, it will be a most useful introduction for amateur cultivators.—B. S. W.
PL. 38. DENDROBIUM BIGIBBUM.
DENDROBIUM BIGIBBUM.
[[Plate 38].]
Native of Tropical North-east Australia.
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs long, slender, erect, fusiform, one to two feet in length, closely invested between the nodes with dry light brown sheaths, the older ones swollen at the very base. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, sub-acuminate, five ribbed, of a deep green colour, and a somewhat coriaceous texture, a few only (five or six) being developed towards the extremities of the stems. Racemes erect or curving, six to twelve flowered, nearly a foot in length, usually produced from the upper nodes of the old leafless stems, but sometimes from the apex of the younger leafy stems. Flowers large, showy, rich rosy purple; sepals oblong acute, flat, of a rich purplish magenta, the lateral ones united at the base into a short blunt spur below the setting on of the lip, above which spur is a gibbosity, occasioned by a similar swelling at the base of the lip (whence comes the specific name bigibbum); petals large, roundish, spreading, recurved, of the same colour as the sepals; lip three-lobed, the lateral lobes incurved, the retuse middle lobe somewhat reflexed, rich crimson-purple veined with darker purple, the base decurrent and gibbose, and the disk with three white papillose crests. Columns compressed, grooved, the back united with the sepal.
Dendrobium bigibbum, Lindley, in Paxton’s Flower Garden, iii, 25, fig. 245; Hooker, Botanical Magazine, t. 4898; Walpers’ Annales Botanices Systematicæ, vi., 302; Warner, Select Orchidaceous Plants, 2 ser. t. 8; Van Houtte, Flore des Serres, xi., t. 1143; Bateman, Second Century of Orchidaceous Plants, t. 169; Williams, Orchid Growers’ Manual, 5 ed., 165.
This plant belongs to one of the most noble and popular, one of the most showy and beautiful genera of the whole family of Orchids, and one among the flowers of which nearly every colour occurs—bright yellow, pure white, rich crimson, bright purple, soft mauve, rich orange, nankeen, and many others being found among the many and various habited species of Dendrobes.