THE LADY^S SLIPPER. 



WILLIAM KERR HIGLEY, 

 Secretary of The Chicago Academy of Sciences. 



THIS interesting plant belongs 

 to that remarkable family of 

 orchids {Orchidacecs) which in- 

 cludes over four hundred genera 

 and five thousand species. They are 

 especially noted for the great variety 

 of shapes and colors of their flowers, 

 many of them resembling beetles and 

 other insects, monkey, snake, and 

 lizard heads, as well as helmets and 

 slippers, the latter giving rise to the 

 name of the plant in our illustration. 

 The variety, singular beauty, and deli- 

 cate odor, as well as the peculiar ar- 

 rangement of the parts of the flower, 

 make many of the species of great 

 financial value. This is also enhanced 

 by the extreme care required in their 

 cultivation, which must be accom- 

 plished in hothouses, for the majority 

 of the more valuable forms are native 

 only in the tropical forests. Many, 

 too, are rarely found except as single 

 individuals widely separated. 



There are many parasitic species, 

 and in the tropics a larger number at- 

 tach themselves by their long roots to 

 trees, but do not obtain their nourish- 

 ment from them, while those belong- 

 ing to temperate regions usually grow 

 on the ground. 



In the last sixty years the cultivation 

 of orchids has become a passion in Eu- 

 rope and, to a great extent, in America. 



It is said that "Linnaeus, in the mid- 

 dle of the last century, knew but a 

 dozen exotic orchids." To-day over 

 three thousand are known to Eng- 

 lish and American horticulturists. 



Though admired by all, the orchids 

 are especially interesting to the scien- 

 tist, for in their peculiar flowers is found 

 an unusual arrangement to bring about 

 cross-fertilization, so necessary to the 

 best development of plant life. It is 

 evident also, as shown by Dr. Charles 

 Darwin, that this was not so in the 

 earlier life of the family, but has been 

 a gradual change, through centuries, 

 by which the species have been better 

 prepared to survive. 



No other family of plants presents as 

 much evidence of the provision in na- 

 ture for the protection of species and 

 their continuance by propagation. 



Few of the orchids are of economic 

 value to man. The most important 

 ones, outside of a few used in medi- 

 cine, are the vanillas, natives of tropi- 

 cal America and Africa. 



The lady's slipper belongs to the 

 genus Cypripediuni (from two Greek 

 words meaning Venus and abuskiji, that 

 is, Venus' slipper). 



Thereareabout forty species found in 

 both temperate and tropical countries. 

 The one used for our illustration is the 

 "showy lady's slipper {^Cypripeduim 

 . regmcB or spectabile) and is a native of 

 eastern North America from Canada 

 nearly to the Gulf of Mexico. It 

 grows to a height of from one to three 

 feet, and is leafy to the top. It grows 

 in swamps and wet woods, and in many 

 localities where it is extensively gath- 

 ered for ornamental purposes it is be- 

 ing rapidly exterminated. 



Those living before the era of mod- 

 ern investigation knew little of the 

 functions of the various parts of flow- 

 ers. We find an excellent illustration 

 of this ignorance in the following pe- 

 culiar account of a South American 

 lady's slipper, written by Dr. Erasmus 

 Darwin, father of Dr. Charles Darwin, 

 in the latter part of the last century. 



In his notes on his poem, "The 

 Economy of Vegetation," he says: "It 

 has a large globular nectary * * * 

 of a fleshy color, and an incision or 

 depression much resembling the body 

 of the large American spider * * * 

 attached to divergent slender petals 

 not unlike the legs of the same spider." 

 He says that Linnreus claims this 

 spider catches small birds as well as 

 insects, and adds: "The similitude of 

 this flower to this great spider seems 

 to be a vegetable contrivance to pre- 

 ventthehumming-bird from plundering 

 its honey." 



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