CYPRIPEDIUM CANDIDUM. WHITE MOCCASIN FLOWER. I 23 



tion of botanists. Many species of this family are wholly de- 

 pendent on insect aid for the fertilization of their flowers. It is 

 believed that it Is better for species or race that the individual 

 plant should be occasionally, at least, crossed rather than per- 

 petually to receive its own pollen. In view of these prevalent 

 opinions, it may be noted that orchids, dependent on insect aid, 

 are not often widely distributed In comparison with other plants, 

 and notes of the disappearance of species from some localities 

 are not uncommon. In regard to our present subject, the White 

 Moccasin Flower, Dr. J. Schneck tells us, In the report of the 

 "Indiana Geological Survey," that It seems to be gradually dis- 

 appearing from the flora of the Lower Wabash region. Mr. 

 Darwin tells us, in his charming work, " On the Fertilization of 

 Orchids," when writing of Cypripedmni, that "an enormous 

 amount of extinction must have swept away a multitude of inter- 

 mediate forms, and has left this single genus, now widely distri- 

 buted, as a record of a former and more simple state of the great 

 orchidaceous order." Some orchids now existing fertilize them- 

 selves, and It would be an Interesting point to decide whether 

 these departed species were of this class, and chiefly only those 

 which had the benefit of cross-ferdlizatlon endured. But it is a 

 fact worth nodng by the student that, even with this supposed 

 benefit, probably more species will be marked In our works on 

 botany " rare " among orchids than among any other tribe of 

 plants. 



The white moccasin flower has been of use to botanists by 

 affording, through variations, some key to the real structure of 

 the orchideous flower. Mr. Darwin quotes Professor Asa Gray as 

 saying, of "a monstrous flower of Cypripediwn candiduin, 'here 

 we have (and perhaps the first direct) demonstration that the 

 orchideous type of flower has two staminal verticils, as Brown 

 always insisted.' " By this Is meant that orchids were primarily 

 designed to have six stamens In verticils of three each, but the 

 tendency in orchideae is to unite these primordial parts into a 

 single column, resulting in these odd-shaped flowers. The study 



