April 17, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



189 



and have been spread over a much larger area than they at 

 present occupy in a wild state^ and that a gradual process of 

 extinction has been as surely in operation here as it has been 

 with more primitive types in other Natural Orders that are 

 now become only subjects for the study of the geological 

 botanist, although, of course, the epoch of final extinction may 

 be yet far remote, and the race may be preserved indefinitely 

 by the hand of man. Paradoxical as this may appear to the 

 horticulturist habituated to regard the Cypripedes as being 

 among the easiest of Orchids to propagate, the following con- 

 siderations will go far to show tliat the statement here offered 

 rests upon a good foundation. Although the Cypripedes are 

 still spread over large portions of the earth's surface, both in 

 the eastern and the western hemispheres, the included spe- 

 cies have, almost without exception, retreated to sections that 

 are extremely restricted in area, and frequently isolated and 

 remote from each other ; so that while some species are 

 abundant in their known habitats, and have been and are 

 still imported into Europe in quantity, it is very different with 

 other species ; for example, the habitat of the beautiful Cypri- 

 pedium Fairieanum is practically unknown, and all the existing 

 plants in cultivation have been derived from the three or four 

 that were first casually imported. Two plants only of C. super- 

 biens that appeared accidentally among importations of C. 

 barbatum are believed to be the progenitors of all at present 

 known, and it is quite uncertain whether the species still 

 exists in a wild state. C. Mastersianum has been but once 

 imported, and its habitat is unknown to science. C. tonsum 

 was sent to us in company with C. Curtisii unknown to its dis- 

 coverer, who informs us that the last-named is quite rare, 

 while its near ally, C. ciliolare, although somewhat more plen- 

 tiful, has retreated to a remote cornerof the Philippine Islands. 

 C. purpuratum has become almost extinct as a wild plant in 

 Hong Kong, and it is fast disappearing before the pressure of 

 population on the Chinese mainland. The Cypripedes of 

 South America present a similar case in their history. C. Bois- 

 serinnum, one of the first species discovered on that continent, 

 has been found only in a sequestered valley high up on the 

 Andes of Peru, while thousands of miles distant from that 

 lonely spot, on the Roraima Mountain of British Guiana, C. 

 Lindleyanuni and C. Klotzschianiini have their home; and still 

 further remote from either, on the Organ Mountains of south- 

 ern Brazil, C. vittatum occurs, and nowhere else. Nor are 

 there instances wanting among the hardy Cypripedes to prove 

 that the same process of extinction is still in operation. Our 

 native C. calceolus has become virtually extinct in this country 

 as a wild plant, although, owing to its extensive distribution 

 over central Europe, it is still comparatively abundant in some 

 spots, while in others it is visibly yielding ground to the press- 

 ure of cultivation and the presence of a dense population; and 

 this is also true of all the Japanese and of several of the North 

 American species. 



" The true cause of the gradual extinction of the race is pro- 

 bably to be sought for in the reproductive organs of the flowers. 

 A very cursory examination of these must satisfy most 

 observers that self-fertilization is impossible, and the sexual 

 apparatus is so constructed that few among existing races of 

 insects are found capable of effecting the necessary act of fer- 

 tilization that secures the perpetuation of the plant by seeds. 



"That the tropical Cypripedes are similarly circumstanced in 

 their relation to insect visits is in the highest degree probable, 

 for direct observations are, unfortunately, altogether wanting ; 

 and the probability is strengthened by the fact that among the 

 thousands of plants imported by us during the past thirty years 

 we have rarely noticed a single seed capsule. The inference 

 . is thence by no means an unreasonable one that the fertiliza- 

 tion of the flower by insect agency is a rare, or comparatively 

 rare, occurrence, and the perpetuation of the species must de- 

 pend chiefly on new growths from the rhizome, by which the 

 plants spread laterally, so far as food materials are at hand to 

 support them. But the stations in which, for the most part, 

 they are found, and where they must have originally sprung 

 from the stray seeds that lodged there, are in the crevices of 

 the rocks, and in a few cases on the branches of trees, where 

 there is necessarily an extremely restricted accumulation of 

 vegetable matter ; their spread by this means is thence re- 

 duced to the narrowest limits." 



The restriction of the genus first proposed by Reichenbach, 

 by the exclusion of the South American species, now referred 

 to Selenipedia, is only attempted under protest, as it were, as 

 the following extract explains : 



" We have, however, strong grounds for believing that this 

 dismemberment of the Cypripedia is not final ; for, notwith- 

 standing the very important difference in the structure of the 

 ovary of the South American species, these cross with the Cy- 



pripedia of India and the Malay Archipelago, and progenies 

 derived from this hybridization 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, however, be fairly stated ; the East Indian species cross 

 freely with each other, and a numerous progeny of hybrids 

 has resulted therefrom ; 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 seed germinates, and those 

 seedlings that survive are so slow in arriving at the flowering 

 stage that up to the present time, so far as we are aware, not 

 a single plant has flowered, although the plants in our houses 

 continue strong and healthy in appearance and yearly increase 

 in size. Till these plants flower — and there is no apparent 

 ground for belief that they will not — and the structure of the 

 ovary of their flowers shall have been examined, we prefer to 

 adhere to the original circumscription of the genus, certainly 

 a very natural one, and to regard the ovarium character as of 

 sectional value only. This view is strengthened by the dis- 

 covery and introduction of the remarkable Cypripediiim San- 

 derianiim, a Malayan species that brings the relationship 

 between the East Indian and South American Cypripedes 

 morphologically still nearer than its previously known allies, 

 C. Paris hii, C. Stonei, C. Philippinense, etc., have done." 



Of the true Cypripedia, exclusive of those inhabiting the 

 north temperate parts of the world, "about thirty species 

 are well authenticated, all natives of a region lying be- 

 tween the 27th parallel of north and the loth parallel of south 

 latitude, and between the 7Sth 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 rain-fall 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 lime- 

 stone rocks, which constitute the chief geological features of 

 these mountain ranges, in places where there is a small ac- 

 cumulation of decaying vegetable matter. These localities 

 are often steep and precipitous, extremely difficult of access, 

 sometimes fully exposed to the sun's rays, but more frequently 

 in partial shade afforded by projections and overhanging trees. 

 The insular species usually occur at a much lower elevation, 

 not infrequently close to the sea-shore, and where the mean 

 average temperature is naturally higher than that in which the 

 mountain species grow. At least three species have been ob- 

 served to have their homes on the stems and in the forks of 

 the branches of trees, sometimes growing on the decaying 

 fibrous roots of ferns. 



"By far the greater part of the Indian and Malayan Cypripe- 

 dium region lies within the equatorial zone, and is thence sub- 

 ject to all the climatic phenomena peculiar to that zone ; these 

 are fully stated in the introductory notes to Dendrobium. The 

 species found outside this zone are chiefly north Indian, and 

 occur on the Sylhet, Khasia and Garrow Hills, also in parts of 

 the lower Himalayan range, extending from Sikkim to Eastern 

 Assam, succeeded still further eastward in Hong Kong and in 

 the mountains in southern China by Cypripedium purpicratumj 

 the climate of this part of the region is also described in our 

 notes on the geographical distribution of Dendrobium, to 

 which the reader is referred." 



Of the production of hybrids no one can speak with greater 

 authority, and the following cultural notes are therefore of real 

 practical value : " No genus or race of Orchids that has yet 

 been brought under cultivation has yielded so readily, and, we 

 may add, so strikingly, to its influence as the Cypripedia. This 

 is not only apparent in the results of hybridization, which will 

 l)e noticed more particularly after the description of the species, 

 but also in the species themselves, especially in those that 

 have been longest under the cultivator's care. The most ob- 

 vious effects of the cultural influence have been the develop- 

 ment of more robust foliage of a brighter color, especially in 

 those species with tesselated leaves ; the normally one-flowered 

 scape occasionally becomes two-flowered ; the scapes them- 

 selves are more robust, often more elongated, and produce 

 larger flowers, generally attended with some modification of 

 color. Doubtless the chief cause of these changes is the more 



