2 NATURE STUDY. 



yellowish green, changing as the ilowers mature to a more 

 or less bright yellow. The flowers are of the same tint, 

 except that the part called the lip is pure, unspotted 

 white. This is the early coral-root {Corallorhiza innata). 

 In dry seasons it blossoms as early as the first of May. In 

 wet seasons, when the habitat is flooded with running or 

 standing water, the development of the flowers is delayed, 

 and thej' may not open before the last of the month. This 

 year the flowers first opened on the nth. 



When I have found this coral-root I consider the orchid 

 season fairly begun, and start out to hunt the lad3^-slip- 

 pers, which come next in order of time. New England is 

 specially favored by this remarkable and charming genus 

 of the orchid family, for there grow within her limits all 

 but one of the species credited to the northeastern quarter 

 of the United States. OxAy the small white lady-slipper 

 (^Cypripediuni candidum^ is wanting, and this, being a 

 resident of the Middle States, may almost be expected on 

 our southwestern border. We certainly have the other five, 

 the stemless (C. acaule), commonly called the pink lady- 

 slipper, the showy (C spedabile) , the smaller yellow (C. 

 parviflor7im) , the greater yellow {C. picbescens) , and the 

 curious ram's head (C. arietiyium) . The ram's head lady- 

 slipper is a northern plant and is rather rare in New Eng- 

 land, being mostly confined to the mountain districts. I 

 have found it only in Laconia, N. H., and there but once. 



The showy lady-slipper is common enough in Vermont, 

 but is rare east of the Connecticut valle}^ I have seen it 

 in its native habitat but once, and it is so scarce in that 

 particular place that nothing could induce me to advertise 

 the locality. The pink lady-slipper is so common that 

 there need be no penalty attached to the disclosure of its 

 hiding place. The species frequentlj^ produces albinos, or 

 pure white individual flowers, and there is one locality in 

 Manchester where such are found almost every year. But 



