Appendix 277 



Small sphagnous bogland or conifer woodland orchid, with 

 bulbous and coralloid roots. April igth-May 3d-June 15th- 

 July 1 2th. 



Flowers terminal, variegated with purple-pink, yellow, or 

 white ; shoe-shaped or saccate, resembling a Lady's Slipper, 

 with which genus it was confused by Linnaeus in 1753. Label- 

 lum large, saccate or shoe-shaped pink-purple, 2-parted at apex, 

 with patch of yellow (or white) woolly hairs near the point of 

 division, spreading. Sepals and petals free, similar in texture. 

 Stem or scape 3-6 inches high. Leaf i, autumnal, appearing 

 about September 2d, hyemal, basal, sheathed above by 2-3 

 scales. Seed-capsule ^ inch long, many-nerved. 



Continental Range— Vx<ym Sitka, Alaska, Labrador, south- 

 ward to Middlebury, Vermont, and possibly as far south as Pel- 

 ham, Massachusetts; westward to Humboldt Bay, mouth of 

 Russian River, California, and northeastern New Mexico. 



First collected in the United States in Vermont by the bota- 

 nist Carey in 1831-1833. The Rocky Mountain Calypso appears 

 to be distinguished from the eastern Calypso by producing a 

 beard of white instead of yellow hairs at the pomt of division 

 of the labellum. This varietal form is designated Calypso occi- 

 dentalis (Holzinger) Heller. 



Robert Brown, as early as 1813, attempted to establish a dis- 

 tinct species in the American Calypso, from that of the European 

 and Asiatic forms. He designated the North American form. 

 Calypso Americana. Neither Lindley nor Hooker approved 

 of this distinction. Hooker remarking that the species even in 

 the same country may vary in structure or colors, but not per- 

 manently enough to designate it specifically. Smith, Richard 

 and Lindley later agreed with Dr. Hooker in "considering the 

 American, European and Asiatic Calypso the same." 



Calypso bulbosa is the only species of this genus in the north 

 temperate zone, and is nearly related to the section o{ Pleiones of 

 genus Ccelogyne, meaning "two-lipped " or 2-parted at the apex 

 of the labellum. Ccelogyne is a native of Asia, and many of the 

 closely allied Pleiones are alpine-orchids, their large rose-col- 

 ored or cream-colored flowers clinging to the branches of sturdy 

 oaks at an altitude of 7500 feet in latitude 30° North. Calypso 

 also seeks the colder lands, of the conifer forests of Alaska 

 and Labrador, in latitude 54°-69° North ; while in the Rocky 

 Mountain region it is found at an elevation of 4000-5000 feet 

 above sea level. 



New England Range— Mame, frequent ; New Hampshire, 

 infrequent ; Vermont, frequent northward ; Massachusetts, 

 doubtfully reported. 



