152 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



stem. The putty-root" is A plectrum /lyciiiale because the 

 sticky matter in its tubers has been used for mending crock- 

 ery. There are two of these tubers to each plant which 

 lends especial significance to the name of "Adam and Eve." 



Though the species of Spiranthes are universally known 

 as "ladies' tresses" this name, it appears on good authority, 

 should be really "ladies' traces" and refer not to milady's 

 ringlets or shingled poll, but to those strong cords wherewith 

 she is wont to constrict and confine her body. Nor do these 

 names refer to the Virgin for in that case the name would 

 have been written "Lady's tresses." However we pronounce 

 the word, Spiranthes cermmin is the "nodding ladies' tresses" 

 and S. gracillis is the "slender ladies' tresses," the slender 

 referring to the flower and not to the lady. The last named 

 species is appropriately called "twisted-stalk" and "cork- 

 screw plant" and this becomes "screw-augur" for the first 

 species which is also called "wild tuberose" with no obvious 

 application. 



The genus Cypripcdium ends the list of orchid genera 

 in North Eastern America. The word itself means "Venus*- 

 shoe" but we of the Western world, obliged to take our myth- 

 ology second-hand as it were, commonly refer to the species 

 as "moccasin-flowers." Europeans generally call the plants 

 "Lady's slippers" or some equivalent as the French Soulier 

 de Notre Dame and Sabot dc la Vicrge. It seems that when 

 the heathen world was converted to Christianity there was 

 a general movement to change the names of plants honoring 

 heathen deities to others more in harmony with the new re- 

 ligion and consequently "Venus' shoe" became "Our Lady's 

 slipper." But the generic name was never converted and 

 still stands as "Venus' shoe" in spite of the common names 

 vmder it. Cypripedium pubescens is the "large yellow Lady's 

 slipper" while C. parvulutn' is the "small" one. There is 



