82 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



blooms. Of course, in April and May, these buds all come into 

 flower at once, and are usually found open together, forming a 

 beautiful object in the early spring days. It is wonderful the size 

 the Hepaticas will attain to when they are free from the struggle 

 necessary to keep their place among many competitors. I have 

 some planted in my garden, growing in the shade of a cedar hedge, 

 some of them with no less than sixty-five flowers out at the same 

 time. 



These folded early flowers and leaves may be seen by securing 



a whole plant in the late Autumn or early Winter, and cutting it 



vertically through the centre, when, with a glass of moderate magni- 



•fying power, the beautiful provision for the protection of these 



earliest floral gems may be seen as I have described above. 



But let us return to this Cypripedium. It belongs to the family 

 of orchids, a high-bred race, fastidious in habits, sensitive as to 

 abodes. Most orchids are rare in our northern flora, and yet, as 

 those of us who have gathered these charming plants must have 

 often felt, even this species, which is certainly not one of the 

 very rarest, retains the family traits in its person, and never loses its 

 high born air and its delicate veining. As I come across it in my 

 wandering in the summer among the rocky islands of the inner 

 channel of the Georgian Bay, under some evergreen, standing hold- 

 ing up its head with graceful dignity, I invariably get down beside it 

 in its soft mossy bed and fondle it, and can never divest myself of 

 the feeling that each specimen is a choice novelty. It certainly is 

 choice if it is not a novelty. The specific name of this plant is 



Cypripedium acaule. 



* * * ^ ^ *■ 



To any who appreciate curious forms as well as graceful out- 

 lines and briUiant colors, there can be no wild flower of our own 

 woodlands more attractive than the Pink Lady's Slipper. The 

 generic name signifies Venus' Slipper, and Americans have called it 

 the Moccasin Flower, from its marked resemblance to the foot 

 covering of the Aborigines. The popular name given to the 

 common species of France — C. Calceolus — is "Sabot de la Vierge" 

 and "Soulier de Notre Dame," or, "Our Lady's Slipper." It seems 

 to be a passion with the reverent children of the Church of Rome to 

 dedicate the most beautiful things of earth to her who, in their 

 thought, is the most beautiful being in heaven ; so it seems the 



