CYPRIPEDIUM. O 



ovary of the true Cypripedes is unilocular), constituting them a new 

 genus, which he called Selenipediurn.* In this he is followed by 

 Bentham and Hooker in their Genera Plantarum,\ the first-named 

 botanist citing as a reason that "the important character of the three- 

 celled ovary and axile placentation, | together with a slight difference 

 in habit and inflorescence, justify the South American species being 

 maintained as a distinct genus, connecting Cypripedium with Apostasia 

 and Neuwiedia,"§ these last-named two genera including some seven 

 or eight species, forming a very curious group of orchids that inhabit 

 the Malayan Archipelago, but which are of scientific interest only. We 



Transverse sections of one-celled ovaries of (A) Cypripedium Curtisii, (B) C. Haynaklianum, 

 showing parietal placentation (p), and of three-celled ovary of (C) C. Seclenii, showing axile 

 placentation (a). All proportionately enlarged. 



have, however, strong grounds for believing that this dismemberment of 

 the Cypripedia is not final ; for notwithstanding the very important 

 difference in the structure of the ovary of the South American species, 

 these cross with the Cypripedia of India and the Malay Archi- 

 pelago, and progenies derived from this hybridisation have been for 

 some time in existence, and are receiving yearly additions to their 

 number from various operators. The facts of the case, as it now stands, 

 must, hoAvever, be fairly stated; the East Indian species cross freely 

 with each other, and a numerous progeny of hybrids has resulted there- 

 from ; the South American species also cross freely with each other, and 

 many new forms have been obtained ; the hybrids in both sections 

 flower within a few years from the germination of the seed. But in the 

 case of the crossing of the Indian with the South American species, the 

 process has been much slower in producing results; an infinitely smaller 

 proportion of the seed germinates, and those seedlings that survive are 

 so slow in arriving at the flowering stage, that up to the present time, 



* Xen. Orch. I. p. 3, but afterwards abandoned by the author in his subsequent articles 

 in the Gardeners' Chronicle. See Gard. Chron. XVIII. (1882), p. 520 ; XXII. (1884), p. 489 ; 

 XXIII. (1885), p. 270 ; XXV. (1886), p. 680 and passim. 



+ Vol. III. p. 634. 



J The part of the ovary to which the ovules, the bodies which ultimately develop into 

 seeds, are attached, is called the placenta ; if the ovules are attached to the common axis 

 of a many-celled ovary, the placentation is said to be axile ; but if to the inner walls, or 

 certain portions of them, the placentation is then called parietal. 



§ Jour. Linn. Soc. XVIII. p. 359. 



