Cypripedia. 



CYPRIPEDIA. 



THE LADIES'-SLIPPERS. 

 (Concluded.) 



The exotic species have all been introduced within thirty years ; and, 

 although most of them have emanated from the East, it is claimed, that, 

 judging from specimens in Dr. Lindley's herbarium, there are many yet to 

 introduce from South America which will vie in beauty with the very hand- 

 somest we now possess. 



Two species from the Andes, figured in Reichenbach's " Xenia " under 

 the names of Selenipedium Hartwegii and S. Boissierianum, are much 

 finer, it is said, than any yet discovered in the Eastern Hemisphere. 



Some species of Cypripedium remain an extraordinarily long time in 

 flower. I find in " LTllustration Horticole," published in Ghent for 1865, 

 an astonishing statement in proof of this. It remarks in reference to 

 C. Veiichii 2iS follows: "At the present time (Feb. 15), many individuals 

 of this species are still in full and fresh bloom since the end of November." 



It is claimed by the same journal for 1857, that the flowers of C. villosum 

 continue in perfection equally long. It speaks of some as shown at the 

 Fifth Grand Exposition at Ghent, the last of February, in a fresh and per- 

 fect state, which had expanded during the latter part of December. 



The only other species I know of are as follows : — 



C. macranihum, hardy, from Siberia ; dark rich purple. I have seen it 

 illustrated in Curtis's " Botanical Magazine." It has a sort of creeping 

 root. C. Irapcenum, yellow, from Mexico; resembles a gigantic C.pubes- 

 cens, — our large yellow ladies'-slipper. 



C. Cakeolus ; European ; yellow. A friend in New Jersey writes me of 

 this species as follows : " C. Cakeolus is found, not very far away from my 

 native place, in a small group of mountains of basaltic formation, lying 

 east of the Rhine, but entirely isolated between the Vosges and the Black 

 Forest, — a group occupying about one and a half or two square miles, but 

 cut off from the two other chains by level land, like the Snake Hill on the 

 Newark Flats in New Jersey. In this group, C. Cakeolus is found, and has 

 been for years, in uncounted numbers ; but, outside of the northern slopes of 



