244 ABOUT ORCHIDS. 
She does not linger. One may almost say that 
the disc begins to swell instantly. That part 
which we term the column is the termination of 
the seed-purse, the ovary, which occupies an inch, 
or two, or three, of the stalk, behind the flower. 
In a very few days its thickening becomes percep- 
tible. The unimpregnated bloom falls off at its 
appointed date, as everybody knows; but if ferti- 
lized it remains entire, saving the labellum, until 
the seed is ripe, perhaps half a year afterwards— 
but withered, of course. Very singular and quite 
inexplicable are the developments that arise in 
different genera, or even species, after fertilization. 
In the Warscewiczellas, for example, not the seed- 
purse only, but the whole column swells. Phale- 
nopsis Luddemanniana is specially remarkable. 
Its exquisite bars and mottlings of rose, brown, 
and purple begin to take a greenish hue forthwith. 
A few days later, the lip jerks itself off with 
a sudden movement, as observers declare. Then 
the sepals and petals remaining take flesh, thicken 
and thicken, while the hues fade and the green 
encroaches, until, presently, they assume the like- 
ness of a flower, abnormal in shape but perfect, of 
dense green wax. 
This Cypripedium of ours will ripen its seed 
in about twelve months, more or less. Then 
