NAT. ORDER. 



Orckidcoii. 



CYPRIPEDIUM INSIGNE. LARGE LADIES' SLIPPER, 



Class XX. Gynandria. Oidiir I. Monandria. 



Gen. Char. Lip ventricose, inflated, saccate. Petals four, the under 



one bifid. Column terminating in a petaloid lobe. 

 Spe. Char. Scajic leafless, one-flowered. Leaves radical, two, 

 oblong, obtuse. Lobe of the style roundisli-rhomboidal, acumin- 

 ate, deflexed. Petals lanceolate. Lij) shorter than the petals, 

 cleft before. 

 Of the most beautiful genus Cypripedium, no species, perhaps, 

 in the world, excels the one here figured, whether in size and 

 beauty of its blossoms, or the color and markings of its floral cover- 

 ings. Stems none; leaves radical, few, and equitant at the base, 

 broadly linear, coriaceous, distichous, keeled at the back, glabrous, 

 and of a yellow green color ; Scape terete, downy, curved at the 

 extremity, and there bearing an ovate-oblong, green, glabrous, remark- 

 ably compressed, striated spathc ; flowers solitary, very large, three 

 to four inches across ; the whole richly spotted with white ; the two 

 inner and latteral segments spreading, oblong, broader towards the 

 extremity, yellow green, and pale at the base; lip large, saccate, rich 

 greenish-brown without, and yellow within ; column of fructification 

 short, terminated by a large, obversely cordate, yellow, slightly con- 

 vex lobe, glandular below ; beset with minute red hairs above ; 

 beneath this at the base, are two short, latteral processes or filaments, 

 to the side of each is attached a single, sessile, two-leaved, orange- 

 yellow anther; its lobes rather unequal. 



Medical Properties and Uses. See pages 102 and 103, Vol. II. ; 

 and pages 68 and 69, Vol. III. of this work. 



Vol. iv.— 122 



