ORCHIDACE^— ORCHID FAMILY 



MOCCASIN-FLOWER. PINK LADY'S-SLIPPER 



Cypripcdium acaiile 



Cypripcdium, from Cypris, Venus, and pedion, sock or 

 buskin, that is, Venus's slipper. 



Perennial. A remarkably beautiful flower blooming in 

 sandy or rocky woods. Newfoundland to Manitoba, 

 southward to Tennessee and North Carolina. The State 

 flower of Minnesota. Rare in northern Ohio. May, June. 



Root. — Fleshy, in fibrous tufts. 



Scape. — Downy, two-leaved at base, eight to twelve 

 inches high, one-liowered, with a green bract at the top. 



Leaves. — Two, basal, six to eight inches long, oval, 

 slightly hairy, many-ribbed. 



Flowers. — Fragrant, pink, rarely white, large, showy, 

 drooping from the summit of the scape. 



Sepals. — Three, lanceolate, elongated, pointed, spread- 

 ing, greenish purple; two of these united into one under 

 the lip. 



Petals. — Three; two of these narrower and longer than 

 the sepals; the third, called the lip, is an inflated sac, 

 often two inches long, slit down the middle and folded 

 inwardly above, pink veined with darker pink; upper 

 part of interior crested with long white hairs. 



Stamens. — United with the style into an unsymmet- 

 rical declined column bearing an anther on either side 

 and a dilated, triangular, petal-like, sterile stamen above, 

 arching over the broad concave stigma. 



Pollinated by bees. Nectar-bearing. 



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