42 Bog;-Trotting for Orchids 



"In Northern New England, one is sometimes fortunate 

 enough to gather with the Yellow Lady's Slippers, 

 especially with the dwarf species, the Ram's-Head 

 Lady's Slipper {Cypripedium arietinum), the rarest 

 species North America produces, and to me, the most 

 attractive." * 



The flower is peculiarly conical in shape and slightly 

 fragrant. Baldwin was the first botanist to discover a 

 "musk-Hke odor" to the roots of this plant, which I 

 also have observed. The structure of this species 

 differs from all other known Cypripediums by pro- 

 ducing six distinct parts to its perianth, all the sepals 

 being free to the base. There is in the regular struct- 

 ure of Cypripediums a union of the two lower sepals, 

 usually showing a bifid condition at the apex, when 

 not perfectly united, as shown, if closely studied, in 

 some of the accompanying illustrations. 



The brown-pink sepals of the Ram's-Head are all free, 

 and, twisting gracefully, remind one of the horns of 

 a sheep's or ram's head, while the apex of the labellum 

 serves for the nose. The labellum is of a dull purplish 

 color, mottled or checked with white veins upon the 

 crest of the shoe. The apex or toe is of a dull brown- 

 ish green, the orifice of the labellum is triangular, filled 

 with downy white hairs, and not large enough to admit 

 a baby's finger-tip. The flower, however, varies, as 

 does also the plant, in size, according to the soil and 

 the age of plant, those found in damp cedar swamps 

 being a foot or more in height, adorned with large 



' Henry Baldwin's Orchids of New England ^ p. 37, 1884. 



