Epiphytal. Acaulescent. Leaves spreading, tufted, ensiform, channelled especially towards the base, tapered to the apex, one and a quarter inch wide, green. Scape of a brownish-red colour, tall, branched, bearing several flowers, with longish ovate-lanceolate boat-shaped bracts at the ramifications. Flowers large and handsome, five inches in lateral, three and a half inches in vertical expansion; dorsal sepal oblong ovate bluntish, pale watery green with several longitudinal purplish and darker green intermediate ribs, slightly flushed with red, the purple tint stronger on the glossy exterior, which is olive green, the extreme edge white; lower sepal broad ovate, half as long as the lip; petals two and a half inches long, over half an inch broad at the base, narrowing to the apex, pale greenish white in the centre with an edge of wine-red one-eighth of an inch wide which meets towards the end so that the apex is wholly wine-red, the colour deeper and glossy outside with the central parts olive, the inside covered over with pellucid hairs, those on the lower half near the base longer and purplish; lip bold, oblong obtuse, nearly two inches long, the pouch deep wine-purple in front, paler behind, the sides deeply inflexed and with a roundish projecting lobe at the front angle of the aperture, greenish or creamy white with a few irregular purple spots, the inside of the pouch more distinctly spotted. Staminode greenish white clothed with short stiff hairs, transversely oblong or reniform with an apiculus and having a fringe of short dark purple hairs on the front margin, the sterile lobe roundish, fleshy, greenish white, hairy.
Cypripedium calurum, Reichenbach fil., in Gardeners’ Chronicle, N.S., xv. 41.
The class of hybrid Cypripediums is becoming a numerous one, and some of the novelties are very distinct and beautiful, for although it may be difficult to beat the original types, yet in some cases they are superseded as regards colour, shape or form. We are greatly indebted to the Messrs. Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, and others, for the good they have done in taking up the fertilisation of Orchids, and in raising the different forms which have appeared. The Lady’s Slippers are amongst the easiest of Orchids to fertilize, and the plants likewise take less time than any others of the family to attain the flowering stage. We trust the hydridisers will continue their good work, as there is yet such an abundance of choice materials to work upon, both as regards form and colour, and that by careful selection some wonderful changes may yet be wrought. We admit that a great deal has been accomplished, but there is yet a large field remaining unoccupied for those who feel disposed to take an interest in this most important and pleasing work.
The class of Orchids to which our present subject belongs, is one of the most useful for the decoration of our Orchid houses and exhibition tables, as they are free growing and profuse blooming plants, the flowers being also of long duration. Cypripedium calurum of which we now present our readers with a portrait is a continuous flowering variety, for as soon as one blossom dies off another appears, and so on until the spike has exhausted itself; and then when the new growths are made, fresh flower spikes appear, after the manner of C. Sedenii. It is a hybrid between C. longifolium and C. Sedenii, the latter itself being a hybrid between C. longifolium and C. Schlimii, and was raised by the Messrs. Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, to whom we are indebted for the opportunity of preparing our drawing, and who have a most wonderful lot of these beautiful hybrid Cypripediums, some others of which we hope to figure in due time.
Cypripedium calurum is an evergreen species of graceful habit, with long arching bright green foliage. The flower spikes are branched, several flowers appearing at the same time. They are large and handsomely coloured, the dorsal sepal reddish-green striped with pale purplish-crimson, the petals also pale crimson darkening towards the tip to a rich crimson, and having one green vein down the centre; the exterior of the lip is deep crimson, the inside greenish white, spotted with dull purplish-crimson. Each flower lasts for several weeks in perfection.
We find this plant does well grown in pots with rough fibrous peat or fibrous loam mixed with some leaf soil, and good drainage. It requires a moderate supply of water during the growing and flowering season. In fact, these plants may be said to be always growing and blooming, so that they should always be kept moist at the roots, as they have no succulent pseudobulbs to support them. We grow this plant at the cool end of the East India house with other Cypripediums, but it will thrive well in any ordinary stove. It is propagated by dividing the plant when there are several growths; this operation we find it best to perform just as the new growths begin to appear.
Odontoglossum sceptrum.—We feel great pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of a very fine spike of Odontoglossum sceptrum, from the collection of W. McDonald, Esq., Woodlands, Perth. The panicle was eighteen inches in length, and bore seventeen perfectly formed flowers. It must have been cut from a well grown specimen. The sepals were large, of a deep chocolate-brown, streaked and margined with yellow; the petals were irregularly lobed at the edge, yellow, blotched with the same colour as the sepals; and the lip was yellow with chocolate-brown on the front part. This is a fine cool-house Orchid, and a native of New Grenada.—B. S. W.
PL. 137. ONCIDIUM TIGRINUM.