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Gynandria Diandria (Generic Character) (II)

Generic Character.

Nectarium ventricosum, inflatum, cavum.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

CYPRIPEDIUM acaule radicibus fibrosis, foliis oblongis radicalibus. Ait. Hort. Kew. V. 3. p. 303.

HELLEBORINE Calceolus dicta, mariana, foliis binis e radice ex adverso prodeuntibus, flore purpureo, Pluk. Mant. 101. t. 418. f. 1. CYPRIPEDIUM humile--Corolla labio superiore rhomboideo acuminato lateribus deflexo subtus carina angustissima obtusa, inferiore petalis longiore antice fisso. Transact. Linn. Soc. V. 1. p. 76. t. 3. f. 4. We have not figured the present species of Cypripedium so much on account of its beauty as of its rarity, for it is far less handsome than any of the other species that we are acquainted with.

It is a native of different parts of North America, and flowers with us in May.

There is little difficulty in distinguishing it from the other foreign species, it has rarely more than two radical leaves, a very short flowering stem, compared with the others, a large nectari in proportion to its size, which, in the specimens we have seen, has been divided on its upper part, through its whole length, so as in fact to destroy, in a great degree, that shoe, or slipper-like form, from which this genus has taken its name. Like the rest of the family, it requires a little extraordinary care in its culture; its roots should be placed in a pot filled with loam and bog-earth, or rotten leaves, well mixed, and plunged in a north border, where, in severe seasons, it will be proper to shelter it; if the whole border be formed of the same soil or compost, the pot will be less necessary.