Tab. 7188. 



CYPRIPEDIUM CALIFORNICUM. 



Native of California, 



Nat. Ord. Ouchide^e. Tribe Cypripedie.s. 

 Genus Cypripedium, Linn. (Benth. & Hook.f. Gen. Plant, vol. iii. p. C34). 



Cypripedium (Foliosfe) californicum; glanduloso-puberulum, pluriflorum, 

 foliis ovato-oblongis lanceolatisve acutis multinerviis, bracteis foliaceis 

 florea multo longioribus, sepalo dorsali erecto elliptico subacuto, lateralibus 

 cotmatis labello subpositis, petalis sepalis reqnilongis lineari-obloDgis 

 subacntis, labello obovoideo globoso intus basi piloso, staminodio sub- 

 Bessili reniformi, stigmate parvo quadrato, capsulis reflexis. 



C. californicum, A. Gray in Proc. Amer. Acad. vol. vii. p. 389 ; 8. Wats. Bot. 

 Calif, vol. ii. p. 138. 



The plicate-leaved Cypripedia are confined to the north 

 temperate regions, and are for the most part natives of 

 North America, where ten species occur, eight of them on 

 the east side of the continent, and two, both different from 

 the eastern species, on the west side. In Europe, on the 

 other hand, there is but one species, the British 0. Gal- 

 ceolus, which extends into Asia, and is represented in the 

 Himalaya by C. cordigerum, distinguished more by colour 

 than by better characters. In the same mountain range 

 the Asiatic G. macranthon appears, which extends into 

 Northern Asia and Japan. Of other plaited-leaved species 

 two differ from their congeners in having two opposite 

 leaves on the stem ; they are G. elegans, Reichb. f. of the 

 Sikkim Himalaya, and the fan-leaved G.japonicum, which is, 

 from the singularity of the foliage, of all the most desirable 

 to have in cultivation. 



Of the North American species G. californicum is nearest 

 in habit to Cpasserinum, Richardson, a plant known to me 

 only from specimens collected in latitude fifty-eight degrees 

 North by Sir John Richardson, when accompanying Sir 

 John Franklin's expedition to the Polar Sea more than 

 half a century ago. In size and form of flower, foliage, 

 &c, G, passerinum and californicum are identical, but the 



August 1st, 1891. 



