No. 30. CYPRlPEDIirM;, 141 



yellowish cast^ div^erging horizontally from the cau- 

 clex. — Stems one to five from the same caudex, sim- 

 ple, erect, often pubescent and angular, rising one or 

 two feet, three to seven leaves, and one to three 

 flowers. Leaves alternate, sessile, sheathing, ovate oi' 

 oblong, acute pubescent or smooth, but always entire 

 and with many parallel nerves, green above, paler be- 

 neath. 



Flowers sessile, when more than one, each has a 

 bracteal leaf. Germen concrete or inferior, green, 

 cylindrical, often curved. Perigone with five unequal 

 and diflerent sepals, called petals by the Linnean Bo- 

 tanists : two are external oblong or lanceolate, acute, 

 longer than the labellum and green : two are internal 

 longer, narrower, spirally contorted and green : the 

 fifth or innermost and lower, called Labellum, is to- 



"J 



tally different from the others, shorter but larger, 

 . yellow with or without red spots, hollow like a bag, 

 convex beneath, rounded in front, split above with 

 inflexed margins. Style and stamina concrete in 

 the centre, above the germen, forming a central pil- 

 lar, flattened above into an oblong deltoid lobe, sup- 

 posed to be the stigma by some Botanists, and bear- 

 ino- before two anthers, lodged in separate cells. — The 

 fruit is an oblong capsul, with one cell, three valves, 

 and a multitude of minute seeds, as in all the Orchi- 



deous tribe, . 



HISTORY— The natural order of the Orchideous 

 to which this plant belongs, is a very striking and 

 peculiar tribe of Monocotyle vegetables^ which even 



Linnaeus considered as natural, and put in his class 



