CYPRIPEDIUM ACAULE. STEMLESS MOCCASIN FLOWER. 63 



In some plants the floral arrangements are such that the flower 

 cannot receive its own pollen, and it seems to some botanists 

 that this is in accord with a pre-arranged plan to compel the use 

 only of pollen brought from other flowers by insect aid. In this 

 study Cypripcdiuin has taken a prominent part, Dr. Gray, in 

 " Silliman's Journal" for 1867, deciding after a careful examina- 

 tion of the structure "in all the species, it is impossible that fertil- 

 ization should be effected without extraneous aid." Our present 

 species, C. acaulc, is one that was the especial object of Dr. 

 Gray's examination. He shows that its pollen is very sticky, 

 and is carried away either bodily or piece-meal on the heads or 

 other parts of insects. He describes how they enter the flower 

 by one lateral opening in search of sweets with the pollen on 

 their heads rubbing against the stigma, and escaping by the hole 

 on the other side! Dr. Gray says he has not detected insects 

 actually at work in this way, but he gathers from their traces and 

 from a variety of facts that, " even in Cypripcdmni acaule, the 

 insects act in the manner described." The study of these singu- 

 lar arrangements, some connected especially with the plant w-e 

 have illustrated here, led him to say, '' Hereafter teleology must 

 go hand-in-hand with morphology; functions must be studied as 

 well as forms, and useful ends presumed, whether ascertained or 

 not, in every permanent modification of every structure." 



It is remarkable that the attempts to cultivate this plant, 

 extending over the past one hundred years, have met with little 

 success. According to Alton, the plant was first introduced into 

 English gardens in a living state "about 1775 by William Ham- 

 ilton, Esq.," and this is generally followed by chronologists. 

 But we find by Darlington's "Memorials" that in a letter to 

 Peter Collinson dated November, 1761, John Bartram writes of 

 having sent roots of it to his friend. From that time till now 

 the stock in Europe has been kept up mainly by importation of 

 full grown roots from our land. Mr. Robinson, in his interesting 

 "Alpine Flowers," gives minute directions for its successful cul- 

 ture, but concludes: " It may be propagated by division, but the 



