GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



OF AMERICA 



DEVOTED TO THE SCIENCE OF FLORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE 



ADOPTED AS THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GARDENERS 



Vol. XVII. 



FEBRUARY, 1914. 



No. 4. 



The North American Cypripediums 



By C. G. Niles. 



There are thirteen reported species of Cypripedium in 

 the coniferous forests of North America, but the eight 

 species of the Atlantic region are very different from the 

 five species found in the region west of the Rocky Aloun- 

 tain Divide. In fact, it is believed that our eastern Cy- 

 pripediums are more closely allied to those of northern 

 Europe, and northern Asia, than to the species of the 

 Rocky Mountain boglands. Six of our Atlantic region 

 species are reported for the New England States, while 

 only a single species is found in Mexico and Panama — 

 a region often known as the "orchid-hunters' paradise." 



Botanists differ widely in their reported list of Cypri- 

 pedium species for the world ; Messrs. Bentham and 

 Hooker, of England, in 1883, named only forty species ; 

 Hooker and Jackson, in 1893, listed fifty-seven species 

 in the "Kew Index"; and more recently Fritz Kranzelin 

 and Oakes Ames report at least eighty-three Cypripe- 

 diums and several hundred natural hybrids, the latter 

 chiefly among the exotics from the Tropics. There are 

 also several interesting hybrids produced by crosses be- 

 tween the exotits with the terrestrial species. The col- 

 lectors, so far, have not discovered any species of Cypri- 

 pedium in Africa or Australia, although those regions 

 produce a profu.sion of other species of the Orchis 

 family. 



The native Cypripediums of northern North America, 

 Europe, and Asia are all terrestrial. The first species 

 reported for northern Europe, C. calceolus, was de- 

 scribed by Casper Bauhin, in 1620, as "False Hellebore 

 with a Round or Shoe-shaped Flower, Helleborine Cal- 

 ceolus.." In 1616, Dr. Rembert Dodoens, the physician 

 to the German emperor, christened the same species, in 

 his "Herbalist," as "Calceolus Marianus — Our Lady's 

 Slipper," and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary. The 

 Swedish botanist, Linnaeus, in his Species Plantarium. 

 published in 1753, classed Dodoens' Calceolus Marianus, 

 as an orchid and christened it Cypripedium Calceolus in 

 honor of the Greek goddess Cypris — the ancient name of 

 \'enus. The name Cypris, combined with podion signi- 

 fying a sock or slipper, thus originated our present 

 generic name Cypripedium. The ancient generic names 

 of the orchids appear to be the Latin or Greek deriva- 

 tions describing the common names of those plants. The 

 Abenakis Indians of North .America pointed out tlie 

 Cypripediums to the pioneer colonists as their Mawcah- 

 suns — sandal nr shoe-shaped flowers, from which orig- 

 inated the common name of moccasin flowers. 



The thirteen native Cypripediums of North .America 

 are classified in three sections, according to their struc- 

 ture. They differ from other genera of the Orchis fam- 

 ily in having two, instead of a single anther, united with 



the pistils which form the column. Charles Darwin and 

 John Lindley considered that a multitude of forms must, 

 have been swejjt awa)' between' Cjpripcdium and the 

 other genera of the family. The rare Ram's Head AIoc- 

 casin flower (C. arietinum) produces three sepals, free 

 to the base. In all other Cypripediums the two lower 

 sepals are whoU)' or imperfectly united at the base, and 

 appear as a single sepal. The Ram's Head, therefore, 

 has well been characterized as the "connecting link" be- 

 tween Cypripedium and other genera of the Orchis 

 family. 



Cypripedium arietinum, one of the pigmies of the 

 genus, is considered the rarest species in the world. It 

 was first discovered near ^Montreal, Canada, in 1808, and 

 several plants were sent to London, where they were cul- 

 tivated as "Chandler's Cypripedium." The flower is a 

 dull mottled, purple and white, with the labellum conical, 

 and the sepals and side petals free to the base, and of a 

 green, brown-pink color. In certain positions the blos- 

 som resembles a ram's head, from which arose the name, 

 arietinum. The species ranges from Quebec, south to 

 Connecticut and westward from the Maine woods to 

 Minnesota and the Great Lake region. It has the most 

 limited range of our New England species. A few years 

 ago this species was discovered by the collector. Abbe 

 Delavay, in Yun Nan Province, China. As yet, none of 

 the Rocky Mountain Cypripediums have been found in 

 that region. 



Cypripedium reginae, commonly know-n as the showy 

 Moccasin flower, was considered by Mr. R. A. Rolfe as 

 the most beautiful species in the world and the most 

 charming among our natives of North America. It was 

 first collected by the botanist. Carnoti, in Canada. He 

 christened it the Canada Lady Slipper. Calceolus Maria- 

 nus Canadensis, in 1635, in his "Canadensium Planta- 

 rium." Parkinson also described the species as the 

 Greater Bastard Hellebore, or Lady Slipper, in his "The- 

 atre of Plants," in 1740. Twenty-two years later Lin- 

 naeus described the same species as a varietal form of 

 the European Yellow Lady Slipper, known as Cypripe- 

 dium calceolus. The latter is almost identical with our 

 North .American yellow moccasin flowers, C. hirsutum 

 and C. parvifloruni. 



The queen of the moccasin flowers, therefore, was not 

 designated specifically as a species of Cypripedium until 

 the .American botanist, Walter, in 1788. christened it C. 

 reginae in his "Flora of Carolina." In the same year 

 the European botanist, Salisburv, in a paper before the 

 Linnaean .Society of London christened the species C. 

 spectabile. but the name was not published imtil 1791. 

 The name reginae refers to the regal or queenly appear- 



