ORCHIDS. 79 
CYPRIPEDIUM.— Venus’ Slipper. 
WE are introduced by this name to the seventh and last 
tribe of orchids. Although its varieties are constantly increas- 
ing, its single family consists as yet of but a few score, while 
each of the other six tribes number their varieties by hundreds. 
This whole genus may be reckoned cosmopolitan, and it is 
remarkable that a family with such marked and distinctive 
characteristics should find congenial homes in such diversified 
conditions of soil and climate. Species are quite generally dis- 
tributed over most Northern States, and into Canada; through 
Mexico, South America, the islands of the Pacific, and India. 
The State of New York furnishes six varieties, all worthy of 
cultivation, 
The oldest known orchid was the Cypripedium Calceolus, a 
terrestrial and dwarf evergreen; for epiphytal orchids were 
wholly unknown till the discoveries of Messrs. Rumphius and 
Koempfer, at the commencement of the eighteenth century. It 
was a hundred years later that they were brought to England 
and cultivated with any success. 
The word Cypripedium is from the Greek Kizgog, or Cyprus, — 
one of the names given to the goddess Venus, because the 
island of Cyprus was an early and chief worshipper of this deity, 
—and from xddir, a sock or little shoe. Thus we get the botanic 
name Venus’ Slipper. 
It is a fact of interest, in this connection, that, in the ages 
long ago, beautiful flowers, as well as many other things, were 
