Cypripedia. 1 7 



CYPRIPEDIA. 



It seems to require another article to complete the record of my experi- 

 ence with this interesting family of plants : and I cheerfully assume the task ; 

 for the prosecution of knowledge in this direction has been a labor of love, 

 and has yielded a satisfaction which few other pursuits can give. 



Of the native species of the Cypripcdium, I have some fresh items of 

 experience. 



A correspondent writes from Elgin, 111., as follows : — 



" In your ' Cypripedia,' an article I have read with much pleasant in- 

 terest, you mention C. parvifloriim, in one instance, as having ' all parts 

 of the flower single, except the lip, which was double.' This peculiarity 

 I noticed this season in my garden in two instances, — one, C. puhescens ; 

 the other, C. spedabile : in each case, the double lip very much flattened 

 laterally. I had C. spedabile two and a half feet high, with leaves twenty- 

 one inches long." 



In a letter from Mr. Rand, dated June i, 1867, I find the following ref- 

 erence to C. acaii/e, which has defied all my efforts at domestication : — 



" Plants of C. acaicle (transplanted) are now coming up for the fourth 

 year, stronger and better than last year ; and are increasing by seedlings. 

 This afternoon, I took a stroll in the woods, and finding a few C. acaule 

 with very dark, and one with an almost white flower, I took up the roots, 

 and have little doubt of success in making them grow. Perhaps I have 

 a C. acaule soil. I live in a pine-wood, where the plant grows freely. I 

 have tVv'o vases full of C. acaule (say fifty flowers) of all shades on my table 

 as I write." 



A gentleman from Iowa tells me he finds in that State, and in Illinois, 

 C. spedabile on the hillsides, where ordinary botanists would as soon think 

 of finding Sagittaria variabilis ; and he also stated that he found two mag- 

 nificent specimens of C. spedabile on the summit of a high, dry clay-ridge, 

 six hundred and fifty feet above the Mississippi River, in full bloom early 

 in June. 



In my garden, this season, I found several flowers of C. spedabile entirely 



