NAT. ORDER. 



Orchidece. 



CYPRIPEDIUM HUIMILE. LADIES' SLIPPEll. 



Class XX. Gynandria. Order IT. Diandria. 

 Gen. Char. Lip, vcrtricose, inflated, saccate. Petals, four, the un- 

 der one bifid. Column, terminating in a petaloid lobe. 



Spe. Cliar. Stem, leafy. £A)be of the style, triangular-oblong, ob- 

 tuse. Exterior Petals, ovate-oblong, acuminate ; interior very 

 long, linear, contorted. Lij), shorter than the petals, compressed. 

 The roots are perennial, with many long, thick, fleshy, cylindri- 

 cal and flexuose fibres, of a pale yellowish cast, diverging horizon- 

 tally from the candex ; the stetns are from one to five, springing from 

 the same candex, simple, erect, often pubescent and angular, rising 

 from twelve to eighteen inches high ; style and statnens concrete in 

 the centre, above tlie germen, forming a central pillar, flattened 

 above into an oblong deltoid lobe, supposed to be the stigma by some 

 botanists, and bearing before two antiiers, lodged in separate cells ; 

 the fruit is an oblong capsule, witli one cell, three valves, and a mul- 

 titude of minute seeds, as in all the Orchideous tribe. 



Dr. Bigelow describes the present species as being different from 

 the rest, in respect to its having no stem leaves. " The leaves are 

 two, springing from the root, large, oval, lanceolate, plaited, dovmy ; 

 the Jloiccrs are generally single, terminal and nodding : the petals are 

 four, spreading, the two lateral ones narrower, and somewhat 

 twisted ; the nectary is a large flesh-colored, inflated bag, veined, 

 villous, and longer than the petals ; the style, over the base of the 



Vol. iii.— 67. 



