98 



which is curved, strongl}^ ribbed and glandular hairy; the 

 large brown calyx is composed of two united sepals, the 

 two lateral petals also are brown, narrow and twisted. The 

 lip is a large showy pouch, 2-3 inches long, of a bright 

 purplish pink color veined with darker lines, it is deeply split 

 above with the aperture closed by the downward and inward 

 curving of the sides; there are also minute short glandular hairs 

 on the outside, but within the hairs are white and longer, becom- 

 ing rigid and bent downward as they approach the anthers, 

 serving to attract and direct the movements of insect visitors 

 who come in search of nectar. When the insects reach the 

 anthers, the two viscid sacs adhere to their backs and are thus 

 carried off to some other flower, where they are brushed against 

 the roughl}^ papillose stigma and thus accomplish cross-fertiliza- 

 tion. One sterile stamen is expanded into a heart-shaped bract, 

 which is bent downward and inward covering the stigma and 

 effectually preventing all exit, except by the apertures on each 

 side of the anthers. The capsules when mature, are large, 

 about 1-1.5 inches long and produce numerous small seeds, but 

 they are nowhere very abundant, as the very showiness which 

 insures fertilization by insects, defeats its object through the 

 greediness of children and some selfish older people, who pick 

 all they can find no matter how few there may be! 



Cypripedium acaule was named by Aiton in a catalogue of the 

 plants grown at Kew in 1789 from plants introduced by Wm. 

 Hamilton, Esq., in 1786, from North America. He cites Pluke- 

 net's figures and description published in 1769 who described 

 it as " Helleborine Calceolus Marine dicta Caroliniensis , bifolia." 

 Catesby in his Natural History of North Carolina in 1748 

 figured it in colors and says of it: "This plant produces the most 

 elegant flower of all the Helleborine tribe, and is in great esteem 

 with the North American Indians for decking their hair, etc. 

 They call it the Moccasin Flower, which also signifies in their 

 language, a shoe or slipper." 



It was formerly found in the wilder portions of Greater New 

 York, on Staten Island and in Van Courtland Park, but is 

 becoming extinct, on account of its showy flowers, which are 



