JANvaRY, 1912.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 3 
separate them.” It is a thousand pities that he failed to discover this 
character. What endless heartburnings it might have prevented! The 
plants kept their secret for over half a century, but at length it was 
discovered that in this group the sepals are imbricate in the bud, the 
jateral sepals enfolding the dorsal one, while in Cypripedium they are 
valvate (See O.R., iv. p. 331). The character is well seen on cutting a bud 
across. The fact is the tribe Cypripediez contains four distinct and well- 
marked genera ; (1) the original Cypripedium of Linnzus ; (2) Selenipedium, 
Rchb. f., comprising three tall reed-like or Sobralia-like plants (not known 
to be in cultivation), but not the plants so-called in gardens; which latter 
are the Selenipedia acaulia coriifolia on which (3) Paphiopedilum was 
primarily based by Pfitzer, and to which it had better be limited—the 
earlier Uropedium being inadmissible, and Phragmipedium a creation of 
later date—and (4) the Tropical Asiatic species now ranked under 
Paphiopedilum, probably because the earlier name was overlooked. Their 
characters have already been given. 
The group has been unfortunate as regards its nomenclature ever since 
the original mistake of Linnzus. He gave Cypripedium as derived from 
Venus and podion, explaining the latter as the equivalent of the Latin calceus 
(a shoe). It is therefore certain that he intended to commemorate the 
slipper of Venus, and should have written ‘ fedilon” instead of ‘‘ podion,” 
the latter being the Greek for a foot. The late Sir J. D. Hooker once 
remarked that the simplest way out of the difficulty would be to write 
Cypripodium, the only objection being the aesthetic one that, considering 
the shape of the lip in this genus, the compliment to the goddess’s foot 
was not a flattering one. The word “‘calceus’’ was probably overlooked, 
but it leaves no doubt as to what was intended by Linnzus, which only 
makes the latter’s further mistake of writing ‘‘ Cypripedium” the more 
regrettable, for pedion is the Greek for a plain. As it is, we suppose that 
the law of priority and popular prejudice will compel us to go on writing 
Cypripedium to the end of time, at the same time explaining to all and 
sundry that it means Venus’s slipper. Perhaps in time we shall even come 
to believe it. 
As to Paphiopedilum, its career has been a stormy one, and we have 
tepeatedly been told that horticulturists will never use it, owing to its 
incurable ugliness. It may beso, but the fact that there is a much older 
name, which does not suffer from this defect, supplies a much stronger 
argument. We may hope that Cordula will meet a better fate, but we 
must wait and see. 
