1879.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULT URIST. 
227 
The Northern Calypso. 
At one of the monthly meetings of the N. Y. 
Horticultural Society—which, by the way, are 
rapidly growing in interest and impor¬ 
tance—one of the most attractive objects 
iu a really fine exhibition, was a large 
pan filled with the Northern Calypso 
{Calypso borealis). This was one of the 
exhibits of Woolson & Co., of Passaic, 
N. J., who, having received the roots 
from Oregon some time previously, plant¬ 
ed them in a large pan of sphagnum, 
where, in a cool greenhouse, they came 
forward without any of the drawn-up ap¬ 
pearance too often seen in forced plants. 
Calypso—it has received no other name— 
and needs none—is an Orchid, and like 
the other northern members of the Orchid 
Family it is terrestrial, while the majority 
of those in warm countries, growing upon 
the branches and trunks of trees are epi¬ 
phytes. It is a rare plant in the peatbogs 
of Northern New England, is found in 
Nova Scotia and other parts of the Domin¬ 
ion and is more frequent north-westward, 
it being quite common in the dark, damp 
fir woods of Washington Territory and 
Oregon. In the old world it is found in 
Siberia and other high northern countries. 
Calypso has a small solid bulb, from 
which arises a single leaf; this is ever¬ 
green, ovate or heart-shaped and strongly 
veined. In spring it throws up a stem 
three to six inches or more high, bearing 
at the top a solitary flower, which is shown 
of the natural size in the engraving. The 
flowers of the orchids, generally, are of 
such irregular and peculiar forms that 
their structure seems quite unlike that of 
most other flowers. The flowers have six 
divisions, three outer, answering to the 
calyx, and three inner forming the corolla. 
The unusual appearance is generally due 
to one of these inner parts or petals, the 
lower one, being usually much larger than 
the others, and of a different shape. This 
petal is technically termed “the lip.” 
This in Ladies Slippers ( Cypripedium ), is 
so large and inflated that it forms the most 
conspicuous part of the flower. Other parts of the 
flower are sometimes irregular,but it is in the lip that 
we find the greatest departure from the usual form. 
In Calypso we find the three parts of the outer 
series, or calyx, and two of the petals, much alike, 
all narrow; sharp-pointed, and standing erect; 
below is the lip—much the largest part of the 
flower, which is irregularly formed, inflated, turned 
The hooded portion just above the lip belongs to 
the stamens and pistil, the structure of which 
can not be readily described in a popular article. 
But neither engraving nor description can give a 
European dog’s-tooth violet.— {See next page.) 
over at the edges, and terminating at the lower end 
in two points. The general color of the flower is 
pink, or pale rose-color, which is variegated in the 
lip with deep purple lines and a broad yellow 
blotch; the lip also bears tufts of yellow hairs. 
NORTHERN CALYPSO.—( CalypSO borealis.) 
proper idea of the delicate beauty of this little 
plant; and we are not disposed to disagree with 
the writer who calls it “the most beautiful of all 
Northern Orchids.” Like other natives of the 
peat-moss bogs, it can only be successfully grown 
by giving it a locality something like that in which 
it is found. For the showy Ladies Slipper and 
other plants of the bogs, we have a spot in a clump 
of evergreens in which an excavation was filled 
with a mixture of peat and sandy soil, and over this 
is put a good covering of sphagnum or peat-moss. 
The Calypso would flourish here, but its beauty is 
of a kind that requires close examination, and we 
prefer to cultivate such small subjects in pots or 
pans of peat and moss, and keep them in a cold 
frame. The name, Calypso, is that of a heathen 
goddess, of whom the less that is said the better. 
The Winter Aconite. 
To learn all about a plant and its cultivation 
abroad, through accounts in books and journals ; 
to be perfectly familiar with its appearance from 
colored and plain engravings, and yet not be able 
to know the plant itself through the acquaintance 
which cultivation brings, is a most annoying position 
for a real lover of plants. Such have heretofore 
been our own relations to the Winter Aconite, the 
appearance of which was noted every spring by the 
European journals, with words of praise that made 
us each year all the more desirous to have and 
know the plant. With this feeling, it may be as¬ 
sumed that our ignorance was not due to a want of 
effort to cultivate it. Each autumn the roots are 
offered, in small quantity, by our bulb dealers, and 
each autumn, for years, we have procured the roots, 
now from one dealer, and now from another, and 
planted them in the border, on the rock-work, in 
the wild garden, and even in pots, and each suc¬ 
ceeding spring have watched, but in vain, for the 
“ well-known and admired Winter Aconite * * one 
of the earliest and hardiest of spring flowers.” It 
being a nalive of Central Europe, it may 
have been supposed that our winters were 
too severe for it, had not the failure been 
the same in pots wintered in the cellar or 
in the pit. Not discouraged by repeated 
failure, roots were again set out last fall, 
and this spring we had, for the first time, 
an abundance of Winter Aconite. The 
key to former failures was to be found in 
learning the difference between this and 
former plantings. In the planting itself, 
there was no difference, but in the roots 
themselves, there was—a slight difference, 
it is true, but enough to cause success or 
failure. Last fall we received the roots 
in the very heavy paper bag in which they 
had been imported, and in the buck¬ 
wheat chaff in which they were packed. 
Heretofore we had taken the roots from 
the dealer’s show counters, it being their 
habit to unpack their bulbs and roots, and 
place them in pans, baskets, etc., upon 
tables, where their customers may see 
them, and where they may be at hand for 
filling orders. This exposure may be for 
a few days or a few weeks, and a part of 
this time the weather may require the 
store to be heated; while this does not at 
all injure hyacinths, tulips, and most 
others, it is sufficient to destroy the 
vitality in Winter Aconite, and in some 
other roots and bulbs, and accounts for 
other failures. Having been particular in 
describing this matter, for the benefit of 
those who sell and those who buy bulbs 
and roots, we add, as to the plant itself, 
that the engraving gives its size and the 
general appearance of the flowers from a 
single root, though it does not give the 
effect of a mass, the condition in which it 
shows best. Later, the stems grow to 
about twice the hight here shown. The 
flowers are described as “ yellow,” but 
it is a pale and most delicate shade of 
the color, and quite unlike the positive 
yellows of the Spring Adonis, the 
Daffodil, and other early flowers of this color. 
Now that we know how to get it, we have no 
doubt that the Winter Aconite will take its place 
in our gardens, to bloom with the Blood-root, 
Jeffersonia, Snow-drops, and other very early com¬ 
ers, over most of which it has the advantage of 
giving a much longer season of bloom. It is a cap- 
w inter aconite. —{Eranthis hyemalis.) 
ital plant for the wild garden, and will probably be¬ 
come with us, as in England, perfectly naturalized, 
and need no care beyond division when it gets too 
thick. The name Eranthis is from the Greek words 
for spring and flower, though in Europe it better 
sustains its English name—Winter Aconite, as it 
