Fepruary, ig16.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 37 
reason rejected the old generic name Calceolus, and, intending to 
commemorate the slipper of Venus, wrote Cypripedium, overlooking the 
fact that pedilon was the equivalent of a slipper. The correction to 
Cypripedilum was made over a century later. The species slowly 
accumulated for some years, until one was introduced by Linden in which 
the pouch was replaced by an elongated petal, and of this Lindley made a 
new genus, calling it Uropedium, in allusion to the tailed lip.. It eventually 
proved to be an abnormal state of Cypripedium caudatum. 
Then Reichenbach got hold of a tall, Sobralia-like plant, with a slipper- 
shaped lip, a three-celled, Apostasia-like ovary, and crustaceous, Vanilla- 
like seeds, on which he based his new genus Selenipedium, and to which 
he correctly added Lindley’s Cypripedium palmifolium. But he also 
suggested that the other Tropical American species might belong to 
Selenipedium, and placed them in a distinct section, which he called 
Acaulia coriifolia. But he retained Cypripedium for garden use. Seleni- 
pedium was afterwards adopted in gardens, and shortly afterwards it was 
discovered that this group was quite distinct. 
Pfitzer now appeared, and based a new genus on Reichenbach’s section 
Acaulia coriifolia. This he called Paphiopedilum, but he immediately 
began to add to it some of the Indian Cypripediums. To this the writer 
objected, on account of the Apostasia-like ovary of the former, and Pfitzer 
then gave an enumeration of the species, recognising two sections, and 
wrongly including two Catasetums and a Cyrtopera in Paphiopedilum. 
What had originally served as the basis of the new genus was now placed 
as a small section at the end, a fact overlooked by the writer when after- 
wards making of it a new genus. 
Accepting the essential distinctness of the four genera, which is 
unquestionable, and, on the basis of priority, Paphiopedilum will have to 
stand, but not in the sense hoped for by Mr. Ames. It belongs to the 
Tropical American species so well known in cultivation, and but for a 
strong claim made that for horticultural purposes the single name Cypri- 
pedium be retained, the fine group of C. Schlimii figured at page 41 would 
have been called Paphiopedilum Schlimii, Pfitzer. The use of the earlier 
name, Uropedium, is prohibited by the rules, being based on a monstrosity 
and perpetually misleading. The inclusion of the Indian species under 
Paphiopedilum was a mistake, and the more regrettable because the earlier 
‘name Cordula, based upon Cypripedium insigne, was available. To the 
claim for uniformity in terminology we would reply that the attempt to 
secure it has already proved disastrous. — 
