8 CYPRIPEDIUM. 



The roots are developed from a short stout rhizome, which in this 

 section is rarely creeping ; they are fleshy, cord-like, attaining a consider- 

 ahle length, and are clothed -with fibrous rootlets, not unlike those 

 produced from the climbing stems of the Ivy, and cling with extraordinary 

 tenacity to the surfaces over which they creep. 



The leaves are also produced from the rhizome, five to eight to each 

 growth, distichous (pointing two ways only) and alternate, the lowermost 

 sometimes reduced to leaf-like sheaths ; they are generally narrow in 

 proportion to their length, in some species strap-like, in others linear- 

 lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, or some modification of those forms ; they are 

 channelled along the middle on the upper side and keeled beneath, more or 

 less complicate and sheathing at the base, and acute or bifid at the apex, 

 green in colour, often mottled or tesselated : in some species the 

 under surface is spotted or stained with dull purple.* 



The scape issues from between the imbricating bases of the leaves, 

 the uppermost of which frequently takes the form of a small upright 

 compressed sheath that embraces the peduncle. It is usually erect, but 

 sometimes nodding or slightly flexuose, of a deep dull purple (rarely 

 green), very hairy, and furnished with a spathaceous bract at the base 

 of the club-shaped ovary, t In most of the species the flowers are 

 solitary, rarely in twos; in Cypripedium Lowii, C. Stonei, G. Parisliii, 

 C. philippinense and three or four other species, the scapes are 3 — 5 

 or more flowered. 



Geographical distribution. — Up to the present time about thirty 

 species in this section are well authenticated, all natives of a region 

 lying between the 27th parallel of north and the 10th parallel of 

 south latitude, and between the 75th and 150th meridians of east 

 longitude; they are altogether absent from Australia, and so far as 

 at present known, from Africa and Madagascar ; they are thence 

 confined to a comparatively limited space within the Indian Monsoon 

 region. They either follow certain mountain chains on which the 

 species occur in groups of twos and threes, or are isolated and far 

 remote from each other, or they are confined to particular islands 

 or group of islands. In the former case they usually occur at a 

 considerable elevation, where the rainfall is copious and frequent, 

 and the dry season of short duration; in these elevated situations 

 they are found growing chiefly on the ledges and in the crevices 

 of the limestone rocks, which constitute the chief geological features 



* The foliage of some of the species and hybrids is extremely ornamental, e.g., Cypripedium 

 Hookcrce, C. Lawrenceanum, C. javanicum, C. marmorophyllum, etc. 



+ In Cypripedium callosum and C. niveum, there are two small opposite bracts at the base 

 of the ovary. 



