[Illustration: PL. 119. CYPRIPEDIUM SPICERIANUM.]
CYPRIPEDIUM SPICERIANUM. [Plate 119.] Native of Assam.
Epiphytal. _Stemless_, with spreading distichous evergreen foliage. _Leaves_ few, oblong-ligulate, sub-acute, heeled beneath, and there purple-spotted towards the base, six to eight inches long or more, thick and leathery in texture, of a dull glossy green colour. _Peduncles_ erect, issuing from an oblong compressed basal sheath, dark reddish-purple, puberulous, eight to ten inches high, the flower emerging from an ancipitous linear-oblong obtuse bract shorter than the purplish three-ribbed ovary. _Flowers_ about three and a half inches across, with a large pouch or lip; _dorsal sepal_ large, standard-like, the base green, hairy, cuneate, suddenly expanding into an ovate, bluntly apiculate, transversely oblong lamina, two inches broad, the sides of which are recurved, auriculæform, white, or in some forms tinted with pink, the keel or central line being marked with a well-defined purple stripe; _lateral sepals_ short, connate, ovate, acute, whitish-green; _petals_ ligulate or linear-oblong, laterally deflexed, the margins neatly wavy, but most so upon the upper side, pale yellowish-green, with a median purple line and numerous purple freckles over the surface; _lip_ large, the pouch somewhat bell-shaped, with round everted auricles on each side, and a broad acute sinus in front, glossy, olive green, with the anterior part dark reddish-brown. _Column_ short, hairy. _Staminode_ subquadrate, obsoletely three-lobed in front, mauve-purple, with a white border, and yellow markings in the centre.
Cypripendium Spicerianum, _Reichenbach fil._, in _litteris ad cl. Veitch_, December, 1878; _Id._ _Gardeners’ Chronicle_, N.S. xiii., 363; _Id._ _L’Illustration Horticole_, t. 473; _Id._ _Xenia Orchidacea_, t. 231; _Gardeners’ Chronicle_, N.S. xiii, 40, fig. 7 (woodcut); _Hooker fil._, _Botanical Magazine_, t. 6490; _Moore_, _Florin and Pomologist_, 1882, 179 (woodcut); _Garden_, xvii., 169 (woodcut); xxiii., t. 378 (coloured figure of blush variety).
There is, no doubt, that this _Lady’s Slipper_, which was first received in England by Herbert Spicer, Esq., of Woodlands, Godalming, in whose honour it is named, is one of the most interesting and distinct species that has been introduced of late years. It was also at one time very rare, and realised high prices, being much sought after in consequence of its being so different from the other species known in cultivation; but now that it has been brought home in larger quantities it is more accessible. The plant may be cultivated in any warm moist house, and is of free-growing habit, as well as free in producing its blossoms. There are several slight variations differing in the size and colour or their flowers. That which we here figure has the dorsal sepal white, while some plants have a shade of rose colour towards the base. Our drawing was taken from a plant in the Nurseries of Messrs. Hugh Low & Co. of Clapton, who received a fine importation about two years ago. Messrs. F. Sander & Co. have also added to our stock of this species; and we learn from them that “it grows on almost perpendicular rocks, from which the plants are loosened with sticks, and so let down, during the months of May and September. The water runs over these rocks—not in streams, of course, but sufficient water hangs round the plants to keep the soil and moss which is about them as wet as water itself. During the winter months this Cypripedium should not be grown hot.”