88 Cypripedium spectabile.
W h o l e plant pubescent, from twelve to eighteen inches high.
Leaves crowded, embracing each other, and somewhat sheathing the
stem, elliptical, very acute at the apex, and attenuated at base. Nerves
from five to nine, and having from five to eight very small ones between,
rendering the whole aspect of the leaves, both upper and under
side, striped, and giving them a plaited appearance. Stem round, striated,
and very pubescent, terminated generally by two flowers, furnished
each with a lanceolate bract, the margins of which are closely involuted.
Petals white, pubescent, the exterior ones broad-ovate, and
obtuse; lip exceeding the petals in length, divided posteriorly by a
fissure. Nectary deeply striped with reddish-purple; belly white, and
spotted internally with red. Grows in mountainous land of rich soil;
flowering in June.
This plant is one of the most elegant of the singular genus to
which it belongs. The specimens from which the drawing was
made, flowered this summer in Bartram’s gardens at Kingsess, into
which it has recently been introduced from the Alleghany mountains.
The figure represents the plant the size of nature.