Messrs. Veitch point out that although few genera of plants are scattered so widely over the earth as Cypripedium, the species have withdrawn to narrow areas, often isolated, and remote from their kindred. Some are rare to the degree that we may congratulate ourselves upon the chance which put a few specimens in safety under glass before it was too late, for they seem to have become extinct even in this generation. Messrs. Veitch give a few striking instances. All the plants of _Cyp. Fairieanum_ known to exist have sprung from three or four casually imported in 1856. Two bits of _Cyp. superbiens_ turned up among a consignment of _Cyp. barbatum_; none have been found since, and it is doubtful whether the species survives in its native home. Only three plants of _Cyp. Marstersianium_ have been discovered. They reached Mr. Bull in a miscellaneous case of Cypripediums forwarded to him by the Director of the Botanic Gardens at Buitzenzorze, in Java; but that gentleman and his successors in office have been unable to find another plant. These three must have reached the Gardens by an accident--as they left it--presented perhaps by some Dutchman who had been travelling.
_Cyp. purpuratum_ is almost extinct at Hong Kong, and is vanishing fast on the mainland. It is still found occasionally in the garden of a peasant, who, we are told, resolutely declines to sell his treasure. This may seem incredible to those who know the Chinaman, but Mr. Roebelin vouches for the fact; it is one more eccentricity to the credit of that people, who had quite enough already. Collectors expect to find a new habitat of _Cyp. purpuratum_ in Formosa when they are allowed to explore that realm. Even our native _Cyp. calceolus_ has almost disappeared; we get it now from Central Europe, but in several districts where it abounded the supply grows continually less. The same report comes from North America and Japan. Fortunate it is, but not surprising to the thoughtful observer, that this genus grows and multiplies with singular facility when its simple wants are supplied. There is no danger that a species which has been rescued from extinction will perish under human care.
This seems contradictory. How should a plant thrive better under artificial conditions than in the spot where Nature placed it? The reason lies in that archaic character of the Cypriped which Darwin pointed out. Its time has passed--Nature is improving it off the face of the earth. A gradual change of circumstances makes it more and more difficult for this primitive form of orchid to exist, and, conscious of the fate impending, it gratefully accepts our help.