Part 45

The specific name, Loeselii, refers to the dedication of this species in honor of the botanist Loesel.

Small damp thicket or dry sandy roadside orchid, with onion-like bulbous roots; old bulbs adhering to latest bulb, somewhat exposed. May 30th-June 25th-July 27th.

=Flowers= greenish, minute ⅙-¼ inch long, in a few-flowered raceme, smaller than preceding species, L. liliifolia; one of the smallest native orchids. =Labellum= pointed, obovate, apex incurved. =Sepals= narrow, lanceolate. =Petals= reflexed, linear. =Stem= or =scape= 2-8 inches high, 5-7 ribbed. =Leaves= 2, basal, 2-6 inches long, stiff, strongly veined, resembling Plantain leaves. =Seed-capsules= erect, wide-angled.

Continental Range—From Nova Scotia southward to Maryland, Kentucky; westward, to Minnesota and Washington.

New England Range—Maine, common; New Hampshire, frequent; Vermont, common; Massachusetts, infrequent; Rhode Island, not reported; Connecticut, rare.

Calypso

Salisbury, 1807

BEAUTIFUL CALYPSO—NORTHERN CALYPSO

The generic name, Calypso, refers to the dedication of this genus to the Goddess Calypso. Its Greek signification is not only, as Salisbury wrote, to “cover and conceal” the stigma of the species, but also to preserve a poetical analogy between this botanical goddess, so difficult of access, and the secluded Goddess of Silence, whose Isle of Ogygia was fabled to be miraculously protected from observation by navigators.

Small bogland orchid with solid bulbous and coralloid roots. =Anther= 1. =Labellum= shoe-shaped, saccate, 2-parted at the apex. =Sepals= and =petals= free, similar in texture. =Flowers= 1, large, terminal pendulous, bracted, resembling a Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium). Linnæus wrongly designated this species Cypripedium bulbosum in 1753. =Stem= or =scape= 3-6 inches high. =Leaf= 1, hyemal, appearing as an autumnal leaf about September 2d, sheathed above by 2-3 scales. =Anther= lid-like below the summit of column. =Pollinia= 2, 2-parted, without caudicles, waxy, sessile, on a thick gland. =Seed-capsule= about ½ inch long, many-nerved.

Continental Range—From Alaska, Labrador, southward, to Middlebury, Vermont, and doubtfully reported for Pelham, Massachusetts; westward to California and New Mexico. First collected in the United States in the State of Vermont, at Charleston and Morgan by the botanist Carey, who resided at Bellows Falls in 1831-1833. A monotypic species ranging in cooler portions of north temperate zone, in Europe, Asia, and North America, assuming slight varietal changes in different regions.

North American species 1 New England species 1 Hoosac Valley species 0

New England species:

1. C. bulbosa (Linnæus) Oakes, 1753-1842.

1.—CALYPSO BULBOSA (Linnæus) Oakes, 1753-1842

BEAUTIFUL CALYPSO—NORTHERN CALYPSO

The specific name, bulbosa, refers to the bulbous root of this species, which was originally confounded by Linnæus in 1753 as a bulbous Cypripedium, and later placed under its generic designation Calypso by Salisbury in 1807.

Small sphagnous bogland or conifer woodland orchid, with bulbous and coralloid roots. April 19th-May 3d-June 15th-July 12th.

=Flowers= terminal, variegated with purple-pink, yellow, or white; shoe-shaped or saccate, resembling a Lady’s Slipper, with which genus it was confused by Linnæus in 1753. =Labellum= large, saccate or shoe-shaped pink-purple, 2-parted at apex, with patch of yellow (or white) woolly hairs near the point of division, spreading. =Sepals= and =petals= free, similar in texture. =Stem= or =scape= 3-6 inches high. =Leaf= 1, autumnal, appearing about September 2d, hyemal, basal, sheathed above by 2-3 scales. =Seed-capsule= ½ inch long, many-nerved.

Continental Range—From Sitka, Alaska, Labrador, southward to Middlebury, Vermont, and possibly as far south as Pelham, Massachusetts; westward to Humboldt Bay, mouth of Russian River, California, and northeastern New Mexico.

First collected in the United States in Vermont by the botanist Carey in 1831-1833. The Rocky Mountain Calypso appears to be distinguished from the eastern Calypso by producing a beard of white instead of yellow hairs at the point of division of the labellum. This varietal form is designated Calypso occidentalis (Holzinger) Heller.

Robert Brown, as early as 1813, attempted to establish a distinct species in the American Calypso, from that of the European and Asiatic forms. He designated the North American form, Calypso Americana. Neither Lindley nor Hooker approved of this distinction, Hooker remarking that the species even in the same country may vary in structure or colors, but not permanently enough to designate it specifically. Smith, Richard and Lindley later agreed with Dr. Hooker in “considering the American, European and Asiatic Calypso the same.”

Calypso bulbosa is the only species of this genus in the north temperate zone, and is nearly related to the section Pleiones of genus Cœlogyne, meaning “two-lipped” or 2-parted at the apex of the labellum. Cœlogyne is a native of Asia, and many of the closely allied Pleiones are alpine-orchids, their large rose-colored or cream-colored flowers clinging to the branches of sturdy oaks at an altitude of 7500 feet in latitude 30° North. Calypso also seeks the colder lands, of the conifer forests of Alaska and Labrador, in latitude 54°-69° North; while in the Rocky Mountain region it is found at an elevation of 4000-5000 feet above sea level.

New England Range—Maine, frequent; New Hampshire, infrequent; Vermont, frequent northward; Massachusetts, doubtfully reported.

“Calypso, goddess of an ancient time, (I learn it not from any Grecian rhyme. And yet the story I can vouch is true.) Beneath a pine tree lost her dainty shoe. The goddess surely must have been in haste, Like Daphne fleeing when Apollo chased, And leaving here her slipper by the way, Intends to find it on another day.”

W. W. BAILEY.

From lithograph in Meehan’s Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States, 1: 1878. By permission.]

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