THE ORCHID FAMILY. 73 



sheathed at their bases. The /lowers are perfect, irregular, always sub- 

 tended by a braet, and grow either solitary or in raeeines, or spikes ; havifig 

 a perianth of two sets of three divisions eaeh answering to sepals and 

 petals. Usually the sepals are eoloured and petal-like. So7ni times by a 

 twist of the ovary, or pedicel ivhat would naturally be the upper petal is 

 brought down and takes the place of the lower petal, or lip. Stamens : vari- 

 ously united with the style. With the exception of the Cypripeditwis 

 which have two a?ithers, the order has but one, which is two-celled. Stigma 

 glutinous. On either side of this stigma is a cell of the aJither where the 

 pollen grains are collected in little pear- shaped ??tasses. 



LARGE YELLOW LADY»S SLIPPER. 



Cypripediuin hirsiduni . 



Flowers : large ; terminal ; mostly solitary; subtended by a leaf-like, erect and 

 pointed bract. Sepals: long; ovate-lanceolate. Petals: narrower than the sepals 

 and curling, the lip much inflated, one and a quarter inches broad, forming a 

 pouch with a rounded orifice ; veined with brown, or i)ur])le, and tufted on the 

 inside with white hairs. Leaves: alternate; oval or ovate, pointed at the apex 

 and clasping the stem at the base ; parallel veined ; pubescent. Stem : one to 

 two feet high ; leafy; pubescent. 



Great wanderers over the globe are the orchids, and sometimes it is as diffi- 

 cult to trace their footsteps as it is the mystical, mysterious sensations they 

 produce. It has been said that they are the gypsies of the plant world, for 

 they have a vagrant tendency and some are seldom content to confine 

 themselves to the same locality. But in spite of their lack, perhaps, of con- 

 stancy there are few families that can vie with them in diversity, in coquet- 

 tishness, and in possessing the subtle trait of charm. 



The large yellow lady's slipper is one of the common ones which we are 

 always glad to find in the thickets and deep woods. Its manner of growth is 

 well defined and we would be loath to pass it by, once having been attracted 

 by the quaint curling of its lateral petals. 



C. parviflbruin, small yellow lady's slipper, grows often very closely to the 

 larger one and of which it appears to be a small imitation. It is also, 

 however, found through bogs and swamps. Occasionally, when it is unusu- 

 ally well grown and its relative is somewhat undersized, they might al- 

 most be taken for the same species, were it not that the little one is fragrant 

 and has a lip of a deeper shade of yellow. It always remains a slender 

 plant even when growing to the height of a foot and a half. The lip is be- 



