IVam*s-Head Moccasin-Flo^wers 43 



flowers, while those along the hillsides are from six 

 to ten inches high. 



This rare orchid is seldom, if ever, collected by 

 botanists. It is one of the smallest Moccasin-Flowers 

 found in the Northern Atlantic Region. The pigmy 

 of the genus is Cypripedium fasciculatum, found under 

 young Conifers in open woods in the swamp regions 

 of northern California, along the Pacific slope, exclu- 

 sively west of the Continental Divide. The Cypripedia 

 found in the Pacific Region are very different from those 

 of the Atlantic, Cypripedium Calif ornicum, for instance, 

 producing a simple raceme bearing from three to twelve 

 flowers, all emerging from the axils of leafy bracts, the 

 stem often growing four feet high. The shoe-shaped 

 flowers resemble miniature blossoms of our eastern 

 Cypripedium regincB in color and structure of sepals and 

 petals. 



The Ram's-Head Cypripedium is certainly one of the 

 rarest species on the continent, and appears to be more 

 plentiful, if this word can be used of so scarce a flower, 

 in the State of Vermont than in any other region that 

 has been reported in its continental range. It grows 

 in low, damp marl and peat swamps. 



