The Scientific Notebooks of German Orchidologist Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Kränzlin

in Western China, in the Tchen-kéou-tin district of the province of Szechuen. A single plant has also been collected by Mr. E. H. Wilson, at an altitude of 7,000 feet in the same province, though the precise locality has not been stated.

DESCRIPTION.—Herb, terrestrial, 4-6 in. high. Stem slender, glabrous, two-leaved. Leaves broadly ovate, acute, membranous, 1 1/4-2 1/2 in. broad, with three to five primary nerves, secondary veins reticulated. Scapes 3/4-1 3/4 in. long, arching. Bracts linear, acute 1/2-1 in. long. Pedicels over 1/3 in. long. Flowers small, with pale green sepals and petals, each bearing a dark brown blotch at the base, forming a zone round the column, sometimes striped with brown, and with a white lip streaked with purple around the mouth. Dorsal sepal ovate, acuminate, 1/2-3/4 in. long; lateral sepals connate into an ovate-oblong, subobtuse limb, slightly longer than the dorsal. Petals oblong, acuminate, as long as the dorsal sepal. Lip ovoid-globose, nearly 1/2 in. long, much narrowed at the mouth. Staminode spathulate, cucullate.—R. A. ROLFE.

CULTIVATION.—Roots of this interesting little orchid were purchased from the Yokohama Nursery Company. They were planted in pans of leaf-mould and chopped sphagnum and kept in an unheated frame where they flowered in April. Although lacking the attractions of size and colour so usual in the genus, Cypripedium debile has charms of its own, and is quite worthy of a place among select "Alpines." It is probably sufficiently hardy to be grown permanently in the open air, although, owing to their pose, the flowers would be practically hidden unless the plants were set on the high ledge of a rockery, or grown, as at Kew, in a pan and placed whilst in flower on the stage of a greenhouse.—W. Watson.

Fig. 1, side of lip, in section; 2 and 3, side and front views of column:— all enlarged.