> In my Emacs I have the following.  Would that work?

> "C-c C-x C-w runs the command org-cut-special, which is an interactive
> compiled Lisp function in `org.el'.

I incidentally figured out the problem: I had rebound yank to "C-.", and
did not realize that org-yank was bound to the original yank shortcut
(C-y).

Therefore, I was yanking the org text rather than org-yanking it.
org-cut-special turns out not to be necessary, although I appreciate the
suggestion; and in fiddling around with it, I found the solution to my
problem.

Lesson learned: I should always take a second look at potential org-mode
parallels to the standard Emacs commands. Until now, I had assumed that
"yank" in org-mode was identical to "yank" generally.