144 THE FLORA OF THE ALPS 



C. calceolus, L., Lady's Slipper (PL 109) ; flowers soli- 

 tary or 2-3, subtended by a leafy bract, lip slipper- 

 shaped, yellow spotted with red, sepals brown-purple, 

 acuminate. This, one of the most striking of European 

 plants, is met with occasionally in stony woods at a 

 moderately high elevation, in Switzerland, Jura, Tirol, 

 Lombardy, Dauphiny, and Pyrenees, but is nowhere 

 abundant. 



Order LXXXVL IRIDKE. 



Flowers usually regular; sepals and petals 3 each, all 

 coloured ; stamens 3 ; style simple ; stigmas 3, often 

 dilated; ovary inferior, 3-celled; seed-vessel a 3-celled 

 capsule ; leaves springing from a creeping rhizome, conn, 

 or bulb, often ensiform. A large order, most abundant 

 in the warmer Temperate Zone ; no truly alpine species. 



i. CROCUS, L. 



Flowers solitary or in clusters, large; ovary under- 

 ground ; stigmas dilated or laciniate ; stem o ; leaves all 

 radical, springing from a fleshy corm surrounded by 

 membranous sheaths. 



C. vernus, Wulf. ; flowers few, violet or white, sepals 

 and petals elliptic-obovate, concave, stigmas exceeding 

 the anthers, bright yellow, denticulate; pastures; Alps 

 (calcareous), Jura, Dauphiny, Pyrenees. C. albiflorus, 

 Kit. ; very similar, but stigmas shorter than the anthers, 

 leaves narrower ; Switzerland, Tirol, Carinthia, Salzburg. 

 C. nudiflorus, Sm. (PL no); flowers always solitary, 

 appearing in the autumn (the leaves in the spring), violet, 



