Feb. 
Plate 
OF GARDENING 
In this Bed they will flower; and there will be 
a Mixture of better and more common, but very 
few bad ones. 
They fhould be mark’d when in Bloom ; and 
‘the fucceeding Auguft the Roots of an inferior 
Kind fhould be taken up, and planted in other 
only the fine ones left. 
Parts of the Garden: 
4 EV ASD a 
The whole Earth does not afford a Plant ex- 
XXVI. ceeding this in Singularity; and ’tis ftrange we 
‘Fig. 4. 
do not fee it oftener in Gardens. The Trouble of 
raifing it is little, and the Difficulty lefs ; for it is 
a Native of our own Country. 
It furprizes the Peafant in* the Yorkjfhire 
Woods; and is not uncommon in Lancafhire, 
Chefbire, and the adjacent Counties ; but of thofe 
who have been taught to admire it there, few 
have thought of enriching their Gardens with 
its Roots. 
Mott of the old Writers have mention’d the Plant : 
and almoft univerfally under the Name Helleborine; 
the Leaves refembling the Baftard White Helle- 
bores, commonly call’d by that Name. 
C. Bavuine adds to that Title the peculiar 
’Charaéter of the Flower, and the Name thence 
derived: he calls it Helleborine flore rotundo fi ive 
éalceolus. Others, Calceolus Maria. 3 
Linn us agrees with thofe who feparate it by 
a peculiar Name from the other Genera, and calls 
it Cypripedium ; adding, as the DiftinGion of the 
Species, radicibus fibrofis foliis ovato lanceolatis 
caulinis: Fibrous-rooted Cypripedium, with oval 
and fpear-pointed Leaves growing on the Stalk. — 
This ferves very happily to diftinguifh it from 
the bulbous Cypripedium, by fome fuppos’d an Orchis, 
which has no Leaf on the Stalk, and differs 
greatly in Afpect. 
There needs no Charatter of Diftin@ion be- 
tween this and the Siberian or North American 
Kind; for thefe tho’ defcrib’d by too many as 
‘diftinét Species, are, in Reality, no more than |. 
Varieties from Accident of Growth. 
In the Woods of York/bire the Flower 1 is {maller 
than in Lancafbire: in Gardens it exceeds in Big- 
nefs and Luftre that of Lancafbire. “We have re- 
prefented in this favour’d and moft perfect State 
in our Twenty-fixth Plate. 
The Root is irregular, oblong, and creeps be- 
neath the Surface: it is of a blackifh Colour, 
and hung with innumerable Fibres; mark’d on 
the Surface with the Impreffions of decay’d Stalks, 
_ and {woln at the Extremities with Buds of new 
ones. “The Tarte: is auttere, acrid, 
ter, 
and bit- 
The Leaves are oblong, broad, and firm, 
N° 26. 
Bafe. 
Thefe fhou’d ftand at a Foot Difance, and not be 
taken up till the fourth Year. 
They will thus blow fairer every Seafon than 
the laft; and once in three Years afterwards will 
yield many Off-fets. Thefe muft be taken off 
with Care, and we have faid how they dre to be 
manag’d. 
SLIPPER. 
Their Colour is an elegant gteen; and they have 
high Ribs running lengthway. 
The Stalk is ten Inches high, round, upright, 
and of a pale green, often ftain’d with red at the 
The Leaves on this are like thofe from 
the Root, nervous, and a little hairy, as is alfo 
the Stalk. : 
In the. wild State the Plant ufually produces 
‘only a fingle Flower, which terminates the Stalk : 
but in Gardens, and where Nature greatly fa- 
vours it elfewhere, there will be two. One al- 
ways terminating the Stalk ; the other rifing from 
the Bofom of the Leaf next under it, on a long 
tender Footftalk. 
 Thefe are large, and in Colour partly yellow. 
and partly purplifh: the Slipper, as it is call’d, 
being yellow, the reft ting’d with Crimfon: but 
thefe Colours -are not certain, white often getting 
in among them, and fometimes the Purple- or 
Crimfon becoming univerfal. What we have firft 
defcrib’d, as it is the moft natural, is alfo the mot 
elegant State of the Plant. | 
The Situation and Colouring of the Flower being 
known, the Student will be pene to underftand 
fo fingular a F orm. This would be altogether 
inexplicable, according to the earlier Syftems of 
Botany ; but what we know of the Courfe of Na- 
ture now renders it fufficiently familiar. 
In the Place of a Cup, it has that kind of 
Defence call’d the Spatha, or Scabbard; form’d 
of fome light fcatter’d Pieces of a membranous 
Subftance, defending a fingle Receptacle for the _ 
fucceeding Parts of Fructification. 
There is, befide this, no other Cup: the 
Flower ftands naked upon the Rudiment of the 
fucceeding Fruit; and it confifts of four Petals 
and its fingular Nectarium: this is the Piece 
call’d the Slipper; and as it is the moft peculiar, 
is alfo the largeft Part of the Flower. 
The Petals are long, narrow, and plac’d in 
Form of a Crofs: the upper and under ones are 
longer than thofe, plac’d fideways : they are all of 
a deep -but elegant purple, and the two Side Pe- 
tals are hairy on the Infide. This gives it a vel- 
vety Hue, and adds greatly to the Beauty of the 
Flower. 
From the Bafe of the loweft Petal rifes the 
4] - Necta- 
Feb. 
