104 THE AMERICxVN BOTANIST. 
Apollo by misfortune in contest slew the boy, Hyacinthus 
sprinkling the blood of the child over the i^rasses on the 
field. Apollo in his grief commanded that the earth 
should bring forth a flower like a lilj', save that it should 
be crimson, in memory of the beautiful youth Hyacinthus. 
The narcissus flowers derived their name from that noble 
youth Narcissus, who was admired by many fair ladies. 
Being shy and modest he desired to tree himself from their 
adoration and sought the solitude of the forests, diverting 
himself b3' hunting wild lieasts. Upon becoming thirsty 
he sought a fountain from which he would have drunk 
but when he beheld his own countenance mirrored in its 
clear waters, he believed the reflections to be that of one 
of the beautiful nymphs from whose advances he had fled. 
Never before having beheld his own reflection, he became 
enrapt with the love and admiration of his own beauty- 
and desired to embrace his image. And when he found 
this to be impossible he died at last, from love of his own 
shadow. In his memory the poets of Ionia prevailed upon 
the earth to bring forth these delectable and fragrant 
flowers. 
Like the Dutch tulips and American chrv-santhemums, 
the orchids are popular in cultivation to-day. They were 
familiar to PHny in the time of Christ, under the names of 
Orchis, Serapias and Satyrion. In the fifteenth century 
in Europe there were about twenty-six species known; 
later in 1753 Linnaeus described sixty-seven varieties and 
to-day from six to ten thousand species are known and 
reported for the world. The CypHpediams, commonly 
known as Lady's sHppers and moccasin-flowers, were 
first mentioned in 1616 by Rembert Dodoens, the ph_v- 
sician to the Dutch Emperor, under the title of Calce- 
olus Marianas, The Larin Calceolas signifies " round like 
a little shoe" while Marianas suggests "Our Lady the 
Virgin Mary" in honor of the Mother of Christ. In 1740- 
1753 Linnaeus, the master botanist, revised the names 
and classification of all plants and reded icated this genus 
as Calceloas to Venus in honor of her ancient name Cypr/s, 
