Cypripedia. 



327 



CYPRIPEDIA. 



Flowers are valued by me very much as my pictures are. I have no 

 picture-gallery, and I have no conservatory ; but I have pictures and flowers 

 to furnish my house, and to give an atmosphere which upholsterers and 

 cabinet-makers cannot compass. They are companions to me as much as 

 books are. I enjoy their peaceful society. They are a refined and con- 

 stant resource. I have a sympathetic interest in books, pictures, and 

 flowers : I love them very much as I love my wife and my children. In the 

 room where I now indite these reflections, I am surrounded by their agree- 

 able influence. I look up from my paper, and behold upon the shelves of 



CVPRIPEUIUM SPECTABILE. 



bookcases the works of Ruskin, Washington Irving, and Shakspeare ; and, 

 on the walls beside them, exquisite paintings in water-colors by Birket 

 Foster and Mrs. Murray ; while just at my left are the blooms of exotic 

 orchids, Cypripedia, Dendrobia, and Phalmiopsis, gracefully intermingled 

 with ferns and variegated foliage. The satisfaction arising from these asso- 

 ciations is, in a large degree, aesthetic. I know something of flowers and 

 their scientific relations ; but my botanical researches are only to inform 

 and enlighten my judgment, that my aesthetic appreciation may be more 

 critical and comprehensive. I have cultivated myself to understand some- 



