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CYPRIPEDIUM CALCEOLUS. 
(common ladies' slipper.) 
class. order. 
GYNANDRIA. DIANDRIA. 
NATURAL ORDKR. 
ORCHIDEiE. 
Generic Character — Lip inflated, sometimes saccate. Column terminated at the back by a petaloid 
(petal-like) lobe, representing a barren seamen, and dividing the anthers. The interior sepal often 
united. R. Brown. 
Specific Character. — Stem leafy. Appendage to the column elliptical, obtuse, chaBnelled. Lip some- 
what compressed, shorter than the petals. Smith. 
It is a circumstance rather to be regretted, that so beautiful a feature in the 
Flora of Britain as the present species, should be rendered so scarce, and suffer so 
much from the rapacity of the curious, &c., who no sooner ascertain the place where 
it grows, than immediately they extract the roots from the soil, either with a view 
to profit, or to plant them in their flower-garden for the purpose of augmenting its 
riches, delighting it may be presumed, to see it aiding the beauties of the latter, 
rather than growing naturally as it does in the mountainous thickets about the 
North of England, where, in consequence, it is seldom met with, and the anxious, 
noble-aiming tourist, is often obliged in vain to prosecute his Botanical research in 
quest of a native soil specimen, whereby to effect a satisfactory investigation. 
Thus Joseph Woods, Esq., F.L.S. in his relation of a Botanical excursion in the 
North of England, observes. " I had been directed to seek for the C, calceolus, on 
the top of a steep rocky bank, opposite to an insulated rock, on each side of which the 
road passed, but we could find no such rock, and our search for the Cypripedium 
was vain. The plant suffers from the unceasing rapacity of gardeners ; yet it does 
not bear a high price, and I suppose, from this circumstance, it is propagated 
without much difficulty ; but at least in the gardens about London, it rarely flowers. 
I believe that in some places in the North of England, it is not only increased 
without difficulty, but also blooms freely ;" and again he adds, "at Helmesly we heard 
again of Cypripedium calceolus, and a gardener who confessed that he had taken 
