330 Cypripedia. 



for too great latitude of discussion, if I continue. So I will adopt a more 

 practical line. 



I am invited to contribute an article upon the Cyprepedium, a vege- 

 table family of extensive relations, upon which I have bestowed considerable 

 attention. The interests of this family being just now paramount in my 

 mind, I prefer to review its claims and generic peculiarities. 



The Cypripediu7n is a terrestrial orchid, and constitutes Dr. Lindley's 

 seventh tribe of orchids, comprising but this one genus, which differs from 

 all other orchids far more than any other two do from each other. It is 

 claimed that an enormous amount of extinction must have swept away a 

 multitude of intermediate forms, and left this single genus, now widely dis- 

 seminated, as a record of a more simple state of the great Orchidean order. 



Darwin describes the organic peculiarities of the Cypripedmm as fol- 

 lows : — 



" Cypripedium possesses no rostellum ; all three stigmas being fully de- 

 veloped, but confluent. That anther which is present in all other orchids 

 is here rudimentary, and is represented by. a single shield-like projecting 

 body, deeply notched or hollowed out on its lower margin. There are two 

 fertile anthers which belong to an inner whorl, represented in ordinar}- 

 orchids by various rudiments. The pollen-grains do not consist of three 

 or four united granules, as in all other genera excepting the degraded 

 Cephalanthera. The grains are not united into waxy masses, nor tied to- 

 gether by elastic threads, nor furnished with a caudicle. The labellum is 

 of large size, and is, as in all other orchids, a compounded organ." 



The curious slipper-like shape of the labellum is necessary for the fer- 

 tilization of the plant, in leading insects to insert their probosces by the 

 lateral passages close to the anthers, by which means the glutinous pollen 

 is conveyed to the stigma. The Cypripedium, like many other orchids, is 

 incapable of producing ripe seed by virtue of its own powers ; and the 

 structure is said by Darwin to be actually opposed to it. The aid of in- 

 sects is absolutely required ; and, without their visits, the plants would be 

 sterile. Darwin styles the moths their " marriage-priests." This is one 

 of the most curious phenomena connected with plant-life, and shows the 

 reciprocal importance of the different created things to each other. Vegeta- 

 ble growth not only furnishes food for insects and other creatures, but the 



