CYPRYPED1UM INSIGNE- BENGAL LADIES' SLIPPER 



CLASS, GYN ANDRIA : ORDER, DIGYNIA. 

 NATURAL ORDER, ORCHIDACE^E. 



GEN. CHAR. Colored, four leaved, spreading calyx. Nectary 

 swelled and hollow. Style with terminal lobe, and petal-like 

 attachment above. SPEC. CHAR. Leaves cartilaginous ligulate, 

 not spotted, twice as short as the hairy scape. 



This whole family of plants according to fabulous history, owes 

 its origin to the licentious son of the satyr Patellanus and the 

 nymph Acolasia, who presided at the feasts in honor of Priapus. 

 Being present at a feast of Bacchus he laid violent hands upon one 

 of the priestesses of that God, which so enraged the Bacchanals 

 against him that they instantly tore him in pieces; and all tho 

 the remedy his father could obtain from the gods, was, that his 

 mangled corpse should be transformed into a flower to bear his 

 name, as a blot upon his memory. 



This flower is a native of Bengal in India ; its generic name is 

 derived from two Greek words signifying Venus and a Slipper. It 

 has two of its petals so ingrafted as to appear but one, with a notch 

 at its extremity ; the sac or cavity is very large, more resembling, 

 according to Nuttall, a bladder than a slipper. In common with 

 the rest of its tribe it has hairy leaves, which in this species are 

 strap-shaped, free from spots, and one half the length of the hairy 

 flowerstalk that springs from the root in their midst, to support 



