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Gleadall, Eliza Eve / The beauties of flora : with botanic and poetic illustrations, being a selection of flowers drawn from nature arranged emblematically : with directions for colouring them
(1834)

The noble Lady's Slipper, Resemblance,   pp. Plate 10-19 ff.


Page 19

 
19 
                                                  10. 
                                        RESEMBLANCE. 
          Cypripedium insigne.                                    The noble
Lady's Slipper. 
                Natural Order.                                          
  Class and Order. 
                ORCHIDEX.                                           GYNANDRIA
DIANDRIA. 
THE Noble Lady's Slipper has not yet found its way into the language of flowers;
from its peculiar 
character it is, however, here placed as the emblem of Resemblance. 
                                Fairest resemblance of thy maker fair, 
                                Thee all things living gaze on." 
                                                      MILTON. 
                                The heart's affections--are they not like
flowers ? 
                                In life's first spring they blossom; summer
comes 
                                And 'neath the scorching blaze they droop
apace; 
                                Autumn revives them not: in liquid groups
                                They linger still, perchance, by grove or
stream, 
                                But winter frowns, and gives them to the
winds ;- 
                                They are all withered !" 
                                               HENRY G. BELL. 
     This most singular and fragrant tribe of plants, styled by the French
" Le Sabot de la Vierge," or 
   Le Soulier de NMtre-Dame," derives its name from the Greek Cupris,
' Venus,' and podrdn, a ' slipper,' 
in allusion to the elegant slipper-like form of the labellum. The Cypripedium
insigne is a native of 
Nepaul, and was introduced into this country in 1819. This species, with
many others that Europe 
has received from China, America, and New Holland, has not hitherto found
its way into the 
language of flowers. It is found inhabiting the mountains and meadows of
the cooler parts of the 
globe, whilst other Orchidee adhere by their tortuous roots to the branches
of the loftiest trees of the 
tropical forest, to which their blossoms often lend a beauty not their own.
     INSTRUCTIONS FOR COLOURING.-A wash of yellow green may be given to the
corolla of the Lady's 
Slipper, excepting the tip of the larger petal and the slipper, the former
being left white, the latter 
requiring yellow alone. The spots having been previously shaded with grey
are heightened with 
carmine and green; the slipper and veins are also worked with the same colours.
A few of the spots 
are touched with smalt and lake; this compound is applied to the stalks,
which are finished with sepia. 


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