THE AAIERTCAN BOTANIST 



123 



The native Cypripcd'unns of northern North America. 

 Europe, and Asia are all terrestrial. The first species re- 

 ported for northern Europe, C. calceolus, was described by 

 Casper Bauhin, in 1620, as "False Hellebore with a Round or 

 Shoe-shaped Elower, HeUchorijic Calceolus/' In 1616, Dr. 

 Rembert Dodoens, the physician to the German Emperor, 

 christened the same species, in his ''Herbalist," a.s "Calceolus 

 Marianus — Our Lady's Slipper," and dedicated it to the Virgin 

 Mary. The Swedish botanist, Linnaeus, in his Species Plan- 

 tariuin, published in 1753, classed Dodoens' Calceolus Ma- 

 rianus, as an orchid and christened it Cypripediuiu Calceolus 

 in honor of the Greek goddess Cypris — the ancient name of 

 Venus. The name Cypris^ combined with podion signifying 

 a sock or slipper, thus originated our present generic name 

 Cypripediuiu. The ancient generic names of the orchids ap- 

 pear to be the Latin or Greek derivations describing the coni- 

 mon names of those plants. The Abenakis Indians of North 

 America pointed out the Cypripediuins to the pioneer colonists 

 as their Mawcahstms — sandal or shoe-shaped flowers, from 

 which originated the common name of moccasin flowers. 



The thirteen native Cypripediunis of North America are 

 classified in three sections, according to their structure. They 

 differ from other genera of the Orchis Eamily in having two, 

 instead of a single anther, united with the pistils which form 

 the column. Charles Darwin and John Lindley considered 

 that a multitude of forms must have been swept away betw^een 

 Cypripediiirn and the other genera of the family. The rare 

 Ram's Head Moccasin Elower (C. arietinuni) produces three 

 sepals, free to the base. In all other Cypripediunis, the two 

 lower sepals are wholly or imperfectly united at the base, and 

 appear as a single sepal. The Ram's Head, therefore, has 

 well been characterized as the ''connecting link" between 

 Cypripediiim and other genera of the Orchis Eamily. 



Cypripediuni arietinuni^ one of the pigmies of the genus, 

 is considered the rarest species in the world. It was first dis- 



