The Orchid Album, Volume 3: Comprising Coloured Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, and Beautiful Orchidaceous PlantsMoore, Thomas
Science
The Orchid Album, Volume 3: Comprising Coloured Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, and Beautiful Orchidaceous Plants
Moore, Thomas
Orchids; Orchids -- Pictorial works
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.”
_Cypripedium Spicerianum_ is a dwarf evergreen plant, with light glossy
green foliage, six inches or upwards in length, and throws up its
flowers on purplish downy stalks, some eight or ten inches above the
foliage. The flowers are very peculiar, from the singular twisting of
the dorsal sepal, which is white, or in some varieties suffused with
rose, green at the very base, and having a broad purplish stripe along
the centre; the petals, which are prettily waved especially along the
upper edge, are green, with a central stripe and numerous dots of
purple; and the lip is large, and of a brownish-green. The staminode in
this species is very brilliant and conspicuous, being of a beautiful
mauve-purple, with a white border. The plants bloom during September and
October; and when a number of them can be obtained, and their growth
regulated, they may be kept flowering for a much longer time, as each
individual blossom lasts several weeks in beauty.
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