Yellow and Orange 



This blackberry lily of gorgeous hue originally came from 

 China. Escaping from gardens here and there, it was first re- 

 ported as a wild tlower at East Rock, Connecticut; other groups 

 of vagabonds were met marching along the roadsides on Long 

 Island; near Suffern, New York; then farther southward and 

 westward, until it has already attained a very respectable range. 

 Every plant has some good device for sending its offspring away 

 from home to found new colonies, if man would but let it alone. 

 Better still, give the eager travellers a lift! 



Large Yellow Lady's Slipper; Whippoorwill's 

 Shoe; Yellow Moccasin Flower 



(Cypripediiim hirsuium) Orchid family 



(C. ptibescens of Gray) 



Flower — Solitary, large, showy, borne at the top of a leafy stem 



1 to 2 ft. high. Sepals 3, 2 of them united, greenish or yel- 

 lowish, striped with purple or dull red, very long, narrow ; 



2 petals, brown, narrower, twisting ; the third an inflated sac, 

 open at the top, 1 to 2 in. long, pale yellow, purple lined ; 

 white hairs within ; sterile stamen triangular ; stigma thick. 

 Leaves: Oval or elliptic, pointed, 3 to 5 in. long, parallel- 

 nerved, sheathing. 



Preferred Habitat— }Ao\%\ or boggy woods and thickets ; hilly 



ground. 

 Flowering Season — May — July. 

 Distribution — Nova Scotia to Alabama, westward to Minnesota and 



Nebraska. 



Swinging outward from a leaf-clasped stem, this orchid at- 

 tracts us by its flaunted beauty and decorative form from tip to 

 root, not less than the aesthetic little bees for which its adornment 

 and mechanism are so marvellously adapted. Doubtless the heavy, 

 oily odor is an additional attraction to them. Parallel purplish 

 lines, converging toward the circular opening of the pale yellow, 

 inflated pouch, guide the visitor into a spacious banquet-hall (la- 

 bellum) such as the pink lady's slipper (see p. 81) also entertains 

 her guests in. Fine hairs within secrete tiny drops of fluid at 

 their tips — a secretion which hardens into a brittle crust, like a 

 syrup's, when it dries. Darwin became especially interested in 

 this flower through a delightful correspondence with Professor 

 Asa Gray, who was the first to understand it, and he finally se- 

 cured a specimen to experiment on. 



" 1 first introduced some flies into the labellum through the 



285 



