From this botanist, however, as well as from Dr. Swartz, I have been compelled to differ in several particulars connected
with the terminology of the fructification: and on this head it has been my wish to tread as far as possible in the sten f
my friend Mr. Brown, whose labours in his Prodromus of the Flora of New Holland, are no where more conspicuous than
among the Orchidees. In tbis great natural family, the whole o f the genera were originally referred to the order Diandr'
whereas Cypripedium is the only genus that really ought to be so. Ia’
No fewer than eight species are described by Swartz; ten are enumerated in Persoon’s Synopsis Plantarum, and an e|
venth has been added in the last edition o f the Hortus Kewensis: of these the present is the only native of Europe, the pW
figured by Linnmus in the Flora Lapponica, under the name of Cypripedium bulbosum, having been removed to Limodorum
Cypripedium Calceolus, though found so sparingly in England, is far from uncommon in France and Switzerland; the spe
cimens I gathered in which latter country have leaves considerably wider and shorter than those of our English plant and
not unfrequently bear two flowers; instances of which are also sometimes, though very rarely, to be seen with us. In'such
cases, one of the flowers is almost always placed immediately above the other; but in a single specimen in my herbarium die
peduncle is forked, which gives the whole a peculiar appearance.
Mr. Graves informs us, that to succeed in the cultivation of this beautiful plant, it is necessary in transplanting to remove
the root with as large a portion of earth as can be made to adhere to it. It may then be plunged in a mixture of loam and
peat earth, in a situation where it may only receive the morning sun; and in winter it should be protected with a quantity of
moss or dead leaves' thickly strown over it; or, if in a pot, may be sheltered bv a frame during the severest frost.