74 CYPRIPEDIUM PUBESCENS. LARGE YELLOW MOCCASIN FLOWER. 



to vary somewhat from many descriptions, and from some of 

 the drawings of which there have been quite a number given 

 during the past century. For instance, the sepals — which are 

 the two external portions forming the upward and downward 

 back portion of the flower — are scarcely wavy, nor are the two 

 narrower portions (petals) in front, and on each side of the 

 "moccasin" or lip ; again, the flower is not " bright " yellow in our 

 specimen, and there is a faint trace of white on the upper portion 

 of the " foot." The reader knows that all these parts of the 

 flower were originally designed by nature to be ordinary green 

 leaves, and that it was only by a subsequent change of plan that 

 she altered them into sepals, petals, and other floral parts ; and 

 it is interesting 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 large yellow Moccasin Flower which we 

 meet with, we find the leaves very much undulated, botanically 

 speaking, or, as we may say, with wavy and twisted margins ; 

 and it is in the cases where they are the most waved that we 

 have the greatest twisting of the floral segments. In our speci- 

 men, where we see little twisting of these parts, we have cor- 

 respondingly less waviness in the leaf margins. It is a very 

 interesting example of the correspondence of character in the 

 leaves, and in the floral parts which have been made from the 

 leaves, though in so many other particulars they have been led 

 to diverge from each other. 



The large yellow Moccasin Flower is very closely allied to the 

 Cypripedmm Calceolus of Europe, which gave the name of 

 " Lady Slipper " to the family ; and by this name the botanical 

 Cypripedium was suggested to Linnaeus. Indeed, the earlier 

 American botanists wrote of our plant as being the same, and 

 as C. Calceolus it is referred to in some of their writings. It 

 may, therefore, lay claim to a share in whatever of popular his- 

 tory relates to that species. In the past ages, when everything 

 common was invested with relis^ious associations, we find the 



