THE CYTOLOGY OF PAPHIOPEDILUM MAUDIAE HORT.1 HENRY A. McQUADE STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The hybrid Paphiopedilum Maudiae Hort. is the offspring of Paphiopedilumcallosum var. Sanderae and P. Lawrenceanum var. Hyeanum. It has been used inrelatively few crosses despite its quality, and its offspring have rarely, if ever, beenable to exceed it. It was felt that an orchid of such superiority which producedlittle and often no seed should be examined cytologically to ascertain, if possible,the causes of its sterility. Accordingly, cytological examination was made of theparents and the hybrid and some observations were made on somatic tissues of cer-tain related species. I. PAPHIOPEDILUM Pfitz. Paphiopedilum was originally incorporated in the genus Cypripedium describedby Linnaeus. From Cypripedium were later extracted the three other genera of theTribe CYPRIPEDILINAE as they are generally accepted today; the residue of thelarge genus continues under Linnaeus' original designation. The orchid-growercontinues to refer to various species of Paphiopedilum as "Cypripedium," and theconfusion oftimes extends to the remaining genera. Linnaeus arrived at the name Cypripedium in an effort to latinize what hethought were the proper Greek words for the "Slipper of Venus." These areKv7rpt� (Latin Veneris) and roo&ov (calceus). The last, however, does not signifythe Latin calceus, or shoe, but rather is the word for a small foot. Ascherson2changed the generic name to Cypripedilum (pedilum representing the latinizationof the Greek equivalent of calceolus), and this was adopted by Pfitzer (1886)and published as such. Buser (1894) has concluded that both names representthe latinization of "very mediocre Greek," but that by virtue of priority Cypri-pedium would be correct. Since Linnaeus had used Cypripedium consistently inboth 'Species Plantarum' and 'Genera Plantarum' Pfitzer would have no rightunder present-day rules to suggest a change. Selenipedium was changed to Selenipedilum by Pfitzer in 1886 on the samebasis that the change was made in Cypripedium. The genus was originally de-scribed as Selenepedium by Reichenbach filius (1859) who used this spelling con-sistently. On the basis of priority as determined by the present-day rules ofnomenclature, Selenipedium is the proper expression. The use of Phragmopedilum rather than Phragmopedium suggested by Rolfe (1896) is mandatory today since the genus was published originally as Phragmo-pedilum by Pfitzer. In the same manner Paphiopedilum (rather than Paphiopedium 1An investigation carried out at the Missouri Botanical Garden and submitted as a thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Henry Shaw School of Botany of Washington University. 2Ascherson, P. Flora d. Prov. Brandenburg, p. 700, in nota. 1864. 433
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