32 



THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



close, according to Professor Gray, to C. calccolus, of Northern 

 Europe, itself known in France as " Sabot de la Vierge " and 

 " Soulier de Notre Dame," will display its bright yellow blos- 

 som a few days later, its broad, alternate leaves contrasting 

 finely with the more delicate foliage about it. The labellum is 

 flattish on the sides, exhibits slight inequalities of surface 

 (which in C. calccolus, if the pictures of that species I have 

 seen are correct, become decided folds or ridges), and often de- 

 velops quite a pointed toe. There is no fissure in front such as 

 we see in the Pink Lady's Slipper. The labellum of C. pu- 

 bcscens retains its color very well in a pressed state and the 

 shape may be kept by inserting a little cotton. " All parts of 

 a flower," says Meehan, "were originally designed by nature to 

 be ordinary green leaves, and it was only by a subsequent plan 

 that she altered them into sepals, petals, etc., and it is interest- 

 ing to note that when she goes to work on this change of 

 leaves to flowers, she generally carries along some peculiarities 

 especially belonging to the leaves. Now in the usual forms 

 of the Larger Yellow Lady's Slipper we find the leaves very 

 much undulated, botanically speaking, or with wavy and 

 twisted margins ; and it is in these cases where they are the 

 most waved that we have the greatest twisting of the floral 

 segments." 



I sometimes find this species under evergreens, but its pref- 

 erence is for maples, beeches, and particularly butternuts, and 

 for sloping or hilly ground, and I always look with glad sus- 

 picion at a knoll covered with ferns, cohoshes and trilliums, 

 expecting to see a clump of this plant among them. Its sen- 

 tinel-like habit of choosing " sightly places " leads it to venture 

 well up on mountain sides, and I am often startled when climb- 

 ing a gloomy, moss-draped cliff by coming face to face with 

 one of its colonies. In Holmes' novel, Elsie Vainer, the hero- 

 ine brings her school-teacher a " rare, Alpine flower," and Hig- 

 ginson supposes it to have been the Yellow Lady's Slipper, 



