CYPRIPEDIUM CANDIDUM. 

 WHITE MOCCASIN FLOWER. 



NATURAL ORDER, ORCHIDACE/E. 



CYPRIPEDIUM CANDIDUM, Muhlenberg.— Sepals ovate-lanceolate; lip white, flatfish laterally, 

 convex above; sterile stamen lanceolate; leaves lance-oblong, acute. Plant a little 

 larger than Cypripedium arietinum, slightly pubescent, one-flowered; petals and sepals 

 greenish, not much exceeding the lip, which is less than one inch long. (Gray's Manual 

 of the Botany of the Northern United States. See also Wood's Class-Book of Botatiy.) 



HE flower now known as Cypripedium was formerly 

 " Our Lady's Slipper," and is known to the moderns as 

 Venus' Slipper, Shoe or Sock. The flowers have some resem- 

 blance to a shoe, but most probably if Venus had the same re- 

 gard for a neat fit as characterizes the ladies of our time, she 

 would not feel complimented by the selecdon of a shoe- like this 

 for her. The style is much more suited to an Indian's foot. It 

 resembles a moccasin more than anything the Goddess of Beauty 

 could be supposed to wear. It is commonly known as the moc- 

 casin flower, and for the reason above given we have adopted 

 the name as our leading common one. 



Most moccasin flowers of the United States grow in thin 

 woods or partially shaded places, but the "White Moccasin 

 Flower" here illustrated is found in somewhat more public situ- 

 ations. It is the only one which seems at home in the open 

 prairie, on which, indeed, very few orchideai grow. The 

 Rev. Mr. Greene tells us, in the third volume of the "American 

 Naturalist," that on the prairies of Illinois only three orchids are 

 found, and of these Cypripcditun candidiim, our white moccasin 

 flower, is one. From its general place of growth it is probably 



(I..) 



