426 



C Y P 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



C Y R 



ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Nectary : ventricose, inflated, 

 hollow. Every plant of this genus is difficult to preserve in 

 gardens : they must be planted in a mixture of bog-earth with 

 much loam, in a shady moist situation, where they may have 

 the morningsunonly ; theymust be procured from the places 

 where they naturally grow, for they cannot be propagated in 

 gardens. The roots should be seldom removed, for trans- 

 planting them prevents their flowering. The American sorts 



require a little shelter in severe weather. The species 



are, 



1. Cypripedium Calceolus ; Common Lady's Slipper. 

 Roots fibrous ; leaves ovate-lanceolate on the stem ; petals 

 acuminate ; root composed of many fleshy black fibres, 

 spreading obliquely near the surface, the fleshy part retaining 

 the mark of the stalk produced the former year, a new root 

 being annually formed on the side of the old one ; stalk* two, 

 three, or more, in proportion to the strength of the root, 

 nine, ten, or twelve inches high, and a little hairy ; leaves 

 from three to near four inches long, and near two inches 

 broad at their base, of a deep green, and ending in acute 

 points : four or five of these leaves are placed alternately 

 along the stalk : in the bosom of the upper leaf is enclosed 

 the flower-bud, supported by a slender peduncle, which 

 generally turns a little on one side, and advances above the 

 sheath before the flower opens ; the corolla has four narrow 

 petals of a dark purple colour, placed in the form of a cross, 

 and spreading wide open : in the centre the nectary is situ- 

 ated, shaped like a wooden shoe, of a pale yellow colour, 

 with a few broken streaks ; the opening is covered with two 

 ears, the upper one tender, white, and spotted with purple, 

 the lower thick, and of an herbaceous colour. The lower 

 leaves sheathe, the upper embrace the stem , they are marked 

 with seven or nine principal parallel nerves, and numerous 

 intermediate ones, fringed with short hairs on both sides. 

 There is a variety which rises with a stalk nearly a foot and 

 half high, which has longerand smoother leaves than the Euro- 

 pean sort, and is a native of Virginia, and other parts of Ame- 

 rica; where there is also another variety found, which is of 

 the same height as the former, but has the leaves of an oblong 

 oval form, and is called the mocassin jtower. The old Eng- 

 lish name of this plant was Our Lady's shoe or slipper, from 

 the Latin calceolus Domina Maria, or Marianas ; and it is the 

 same in the other European languages ; in German, Maricnx- 

 chuh ; in French, sabotde la J'ierge, or soulier de Notre Dame ; in 

 Italian, pontoffala, or scarpa delta Madonna, &c. It is a 

 native of Lapland, Sweden, Switzerland, Savoy, Piedmont, 

 Germany, Hungary, Poland, &c. In the woods and thickets 

 of the north of England, it is rarely found. Parkinson and 

 Ray remarked its growing in Helk's wood, Lancashire, and 

 ncarlngleboroughin Yorkshire; but Mr. Woodward has sought 

 there for it in vain, a gardener of Ingleton having eradicated 

 every plant forsale. Mr. Miller found it in the park of Borough 

 Hall in Lancashire. Found also about Clapton and Ingleton, 

 in the neighbourhood of Kilnsey, and about Kilnsey Crag, 

 in Yorkshire ; and near Castle Eden-dene in the county of 

 Durham. It flowers at the end of May, and the stalks decay 

 to the root in autumn, new ones rising in the following spring. 

 It succeeds very well in a pot, set under a hedge, where it 

 has the morning sun only, and will last thus for many years ; 

 the roots will spread so as to fill the pot, and the plant may 

 be propagated by parting the roots, but it must be done with 

 caution. The gardener?, says Dr. Stokes, might make the 

 botanists amends for rooting out these rare wild plants in their 

 natural places of growth, and at the same time enrich them- 

 selves, if they would prove by experiment that one at least 

 of the orchis tribe may be raised from seed. 



2. Cypripedium Bulbosom ; Bulbous Lady's Slipper. Bulb 

 roundish ; leaf roundish at the root. Root a bulb, throwing 

 out a few thick fibres from its lower part, and invested with 

 a semitransparent, acute, erect membrane, rising far above 

 its top ; leaf radical, solitary, petioled, oval, somewhat point- 

 ed, entire, ribbed, smooth, dark green, spotted with brown, 

 very like the Dog'f-tuoth Vutlet ; stalk three inches high, 

 erect, round, one-flowered, invested with two tubular nie.ni- 

 branaceous sheaths ; bracte solitary, not far from the (lower, 

 linear-lanceolate, acute, purplish ; flower a little inclined ; 

 petals five, all pointing upwards, spreading, lanceolate, 

 acute, three-nerved, purple, three on the outside of the other 

 two; lower lip of the nectary as long ;w the petals, very 

 large, pendulous, streaked with purple, having a prominent 

 cloven point in the forepart beneath, gaping above, with a 

 spreading, reflex, dependent margin, and bearded in the ori- 

 fice with a little tuft of yellow hairs : the upper lip shorter 

 than the petals, erect, broad, oval, entire, almost of the same 

 substance and colour with the petals. Native of Lapland, 

 Russia, Siberia, and Nova Scotia. 



3. Cypripedium Jnponicum ; Japanese Lady's Slipper. 

 Leaves on the stem roundish, nearly opposite, nerved. Stem 

 round, erect, villose, a foot high ; leaves in the middle of 

 the stem, two, embracing, acute, sinuate-waved, smooth, a 

 hand broad; below the flower, a sessile, solitary, oblong, 

 acute, entire leaflet, scarcely an inch in length ; flower ter- 

 minating, solitary, of the same size as in the common species. 

 Native of Japan, where it flowers in April and May. 



4. Cypripedium Album ; Wkile Lady's Slipper. Roots 

 fibrous ; leaves ovate-lanceolate on the stem ; petals obtuse. 

 This species derives its name from the whiteness of its petals. 

 The large nectary is tinged with purple. It is the most mag- 

 nificent flower of the genus to which it belongs ; and hence, 

 Mr. Salisbury justly names it spectabile, for there are few 

 flowers, that to such singularity of structure add such ele- 

 gance and beauty. It grows spontaneously in the woods, 

 in various parts of North America. 



5. Cypripedium Acaule ; Two-leaved Lady's Slipper. 

 Roots fibrous ; leaves oblong at the root. It rarely has more 

 than two radical leaves ; a very short flowering stem, com- 

 pared with the others ; a large nectary in proportion to the 

 size of the plant, divided on its upper part throughout its 

 length, so as in a great degree to destroy that shoe or slipper- 

 like form, from which this genus has taken its name. It 

 flowers with us in May ; and is a native of North America. 



Cyrilla ; a genus of the class Didynamia, order Angiosper- 

 mia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix ; perianth superior, 

 five-leaved, permanent ; leaflets linear-lanceolate, acute, 

 spreading. Corolla: one-petalled, funnel-form ; tube cylin- 

 dric, subcompressed, inflated, declined, straight, larger than 

 the calix ; border almost equal, inclined, five-parted ; parts 

 rounded, revolute, spreading; the three lower moreproduced. 

 Stamina: filanicntafour; the two lower longer, filiform ; then 

 capillary, incurved, converging, finally spiral, thickenedat the 

 base, inserted into the lower margin of the corolla, shorter 

 than the tube ; antherae ovate, two-celled, peltate, distinct 

 before flowering-time, but afterwards united into a .square. 

 white. Pistil : germen half emerging, conic at top, with a 

 nectareous lid, below turbinate, villose ; style filiform, pubes- 

 cent, becoming bent down, the length of the stamina ; 

 stigma two-lobed. Pericarp: capsule turbinate, half two- 

 celled ; partitions two, extending halfway, each ending in a 

 two-parted receptacle. Seeds: numerous, small. K^si-.x- 

 TIAI> CHARACTER. Calix : superior, five-leaved, linear- 

 lanceolate. Corolla : declined, funnel-form ; tube cylin. 

 gibbous on its lower edge ; throat trieallous ; border inclined. 





