94 Rhodora [May 



yellow colored; and in fact many have the essential characters of what 

 has passed as C. puhescens, while others not so long in the garden do not 

 show quite so great a change. My plants were originally growing in 

 moss in a cold bog, and did not blossom until j«ist the middle of June, 

 many not until the first of July. I transplanted them into very rich 

 soil in a sunny locality, and now the earliest bloom sometimes by 

 the third week in ^lay, and even plants which were transjilanted the 

 year before are in bloom by June first. All the plants bear increased 

 numbers of flowering stalks, and nearly all the stalks bear two flowers 

 where originally it was very rare to find more than one on a stalk. 

 One season two stalks from the same plant bore flowers whose lip on 

 one stalk was laterally compressed while on the other it w'as strongly 

 compressed from abt)ve, there being one flower on each of these stalks. 



While studying the plants in their natural habitat in Maine I have 

 repeatedly found many which were intermediate in characters between 

 Cypripedium pari'ifiorum antl C. puhescens and in most instances ]>lants 

 readily referable to one or the other form (sometimes both forms) were 

 growing with these intermediates. In both the large-flowered and 

 small-flowered plants I have seen flowers both pale yellow and deep 

 yellow; both with fragrant and odorless flowers, some with ovate 

 sepals, others w'ith elongated lanceolate ones; some broad-leaved, 

 others narrow leaved; some with sepals and petals decidedly brownish- 

 purple, others not so; in fact almost every combination of characters. 



The dwarf, small-flowered plant of the Rocky Mountain region 

 which is sometimes not more than six inches high and with lip not more 

 than half an inch in length seems very distinct from either of ours until 

 some essential character besides size is sought for, at which stage there 

 seems to be no other difl'erential characters. Taking the two plants as 

 found in the East, the extremes seem very difl'erent; but the charac- 

 ters given in the manuals do not hold good for each form. Even Gray's 

 Manual, 6th ed., p. 511, states at the end of the description of C. parvi- 

 florum, — "Flowers fragrant; sepals and petals more brown-purple 

 than in the next, [referring to C. pnhesrens] info which it seemfi to pass " 

 (italics mine). 



The characters ordinarily given in descriptions fail to serve as an 

 absolute means of separation of the two plants, and unless the numer- 

 ous specimens possessing characters of both forms can be accounted 

 for on the grounds of hybridism we ought to regard them as different 

 phases of the same species. 



Bangor, M.\ine. i 



