PAXTON'S FLO WEE GABDEN. 



59 



length day by day at a rate which would enable an attentive observer to see them grow. 



This lady has favoured us with some measurements, made by herself, from which we 

 learn that — 



When the flower first opened, the petals were I of an inch long. 



During the second day they grew 3| of an inch. 



On the third day they advanced 4 inches more. 



The growth of the fourth day amounted to inches. 



And on the fifth day they still extended inches. 



At this time the growth is supposed to have ceased, the petals having in four days 

 lengthened 17f inches, and being 18i inches long when full grown. 



Another example of this tendency to lengthen the petals into tails, but in a less degree, 

 occurs in the " sedgy Lady's-slipper/' mentioned further on. And a third case is found in 

 the strange genus Uropedium, in which not only do the petals turn to tails, eight or ten 

 inches long, but their example is followed by even the lip, which for this purpose flattens 

 itself, entirely unfolds, and pushes itself out into a long and narrow tongue. It may be 

 useful to state that this Uroped, also a very curious flower, has the habit of the u bannered 

 Lady's-slipper/' and was found wild by Linden, growing in the soil of little woods in the 

 savannah which occurs on the high part of the Cordillera that looks down upon the vast 

 forests of the Lake of Maracaybo. Its elevation above the sea was 8,500 feet, in the 

 territory of the Chiguara Indians, where the specimens now before us were gathered in 

 flower, in June, 1843. 



The reason of this marvellous structure seems to deserve inquiry at the hands of some 

 proficient in the doctrine of final causes. There is evidently a tendency towards it in other 

 Orchids, as, for example, in Brassias, some Oncids, the genus Cirrhopetalum, and the long- 

 tongued Habenarias. 



The long-tailed Lady's-slipper belongs to a section of the genus which is distinctly 

 characterised by having no foliage on the sides of the stem, instead of which a number of 

 thick narrow leaves spring up from its very base, and allow the flowering stem to rise freely 

 into the air.* They all inhabit tropical countries, but are generally found at considerable 

 elevations above the sea. As most of them are in cultivation, the following enumeration 

 may be useful : — 



1. The Handsome Lady's-slipper. (C. venuslum, Wallich.) 



From the mountains of Sylhet, and the Khasiya hills of Continental India. 



Leaves spotted with deep green and purple, almost as long as the scape. Lip and sepals 

 veined with green. Petals stained with purple, and fringed with long hairs. 



2. The Java Lady's-slipper. (C. Javanicum, Eeinwardt ined.) 



Found wild in J ava. 



Leaves speckled with green, and much shorter than the scape. Sepals veined with green. 

 Petals distinctly spotted with purple on a green ground, tipped with pink, and fringed 

 with long hairs. Lip deep olive-green, not veiny. 



* The stemless Lady's-slipper (C. acaule) has the leafless scape of this division, together with the broad, thin-ribbed 

 leaves of the other, and serves to connect the two. It is here intentionally passed by. 



