October i6, 1S95.] 



Garden and Forest. 



413 



Cypripedium which come into bloom the latter part of 

 May. All six of the species of the territory covered by 

 Gray's Manual, except C. arietinum, are represented in our 

 local flora. They can all be found in the Pine-belt of Lake 

 County, Indiana, within half a mile of Lake Michigan, and 

 in a strip but four or five miles long. Of the four species the 

 Stemless Lady's-slipper, C. acaule, may flower as early as the 

 20th of May, and it continues for about three weeks. The two 

 oval-oblong', ascending leaves, and the one-flowered scape, 

 four to twelve inches high, which rises between them, give 

 it an appearance quite different from the kinds with leafy 

 stems. A green and pointed bract arches over the flower 

 and points in the direction of the upper sepal, lying very 

 close to it. The narrower parts of the perianth are greenish, 

 but are veined and tinged with red. The shape and color 

 of the inflated sac, nodding on the scape, make it one of 

 the most beautiful of the Lady's-slippers. It is about two 

 inches long, of a deep rose color, veined by a network of 

 deeper-colored lines. When the bright sunlight shines 

 through the lip it is suffused with a very rich color, for the 

 deeper color of the veins blends with the general color, and 

 the flower blushes almost to a crimson shade. Though 

 only single-flovvered, a dozen or more plants in bloom to- 

 gether in a narrow area produce a very showy effect. They 

 grow in the deep or partial shade of the jack Pine in sands 

 enriched by a mulch of decaying leaves, where their nod- 

 ding flowers make a charming picture. The haunts of the 

 Stemless Lady's-slipper are usually the lower parts of deep 

 depressions among the sand-hills. They are often nearly 

 circular, and resemble kettle-holes. In the bottoms of the 

 deepest of them water may accumulate in the wet season. 

 From the borders of these temporary pools, or from the 

 bottoms of the depressions that continue dry, the plants 

 spread away and line the lower parts of the surrounding 

 slopes, which are often very steep. It forms a strange set- 

 ting, botanically and geographically, for this Cypripedium, 

 and different from any I have seen it take elsewhere. 



Cypripedium candidum, another early bloomer, the small- 

 est of the Lady's-slippers, is from three to ten or twelve 

 inches high. It is the only one that grows in the open 

 prairie, where it occurs in boggy or hummocky ground or 

 in wettish grassy land. It persists in the unplowed 

 meadows after they have become quite dry, and may be 

 found growing beside the Blue and the Arrow-leaved Vio- 

 lets or even with Viola pedata. In the Pine-barrens it fre- 

 quents the bogs and damper sands, growing in the shade 

 of White and Jack Pines, or even the Black Oaks, which 

 have supplanted them. It has light green foliage. The 

 small flower is very sweet-scented, the slipper rarely more 

 than an inch in length. This is white or pinkish, translu- 

 cent, and variously striped and specked with dark red 

 inside, the red veins shovi^ing through the thin texture and 

 giving it the pinkish tint. The base of the slipper is 

 stained with yellow, and its opening is prettily bordered by 

 a row of red dots. The rest of the perianth is brown-pur- 

 ple, the parts twisted and wavy, the two answering to 

 petals long and ribbon-like. The stem is mostly single- 

 flowered, one with two flowers being occasionally found. 

 The small White Lady's-slipper is becoming scarce upon 

 the prairies, and is likely to be extinct in such places, as 

 plowing and pasturing soon destroy it. 



The two Yellow Lady's-slippers, Cypripedium pubescens 

 a»nd C. parviflorum, bloom together, and are much alike. 

 The former is generally a more robust plant, sometimes 

 two or more feet high. I could never find much differ- 

 ence in the form of the sacs, though there seems to be 

 a tendency in that of C. pubescens to be more flattened 

 laterally. But it is usually much larger and more inflated 

 when compared with the size of the plant, sometimes two 

 inches long and nearly an inch broad. The sepals of C. 

 parviflorum are brown-purple, those of C. pubescens more 

 nearly green. Its flower is nearly odorless, that of C. 

 parviflorum is fragrant. The latter plant is from a foot to a 

 foot and a half high, the saccate lip rarely more than an 

 inch long. C. parviflorum is often seen here in groups. 



a half dozen or so in little colonies or a score of them 

 within an area of a few square feet. C. pubescens is 

 much more solitary in behavior. In the sand region 

 C. parviflorum takes more to the wet and boggy lands, 

 though patches of it may be met with in the rather 

 dry sand in the shade of the Black Oak. C. pubescens is 

 scattered about in the Oak and Pine woods in the sandy 

 region by the lake, appearing on the low sand-ridges such 

 as visitors at the Columbian Exposition would find typified 

 in the Wooded Island, and where these plants, doubtless, 

 formerly grew. In such situations the plant is generally 

 found growing close beside the Oak-tree, springing out 

 from among its larger roots, as if it sought the protection 

 and shade of the sturdy Oak. 



The handsomest of the group, Cypripedium spectabile, 

 flowers latest. It is here essentially a flower of June, and may 

 be found in full bloom soon after the first of the month, so 

 that its season is well over by the first of July. It was 

 once exceedingly abundant in the damp places of the Pine- 

 barrens, but it has been gathered for sale and for other pur- 

 poses so recklessly, and the region has been so changed by 

 various encroachments, that it is already scarce and seems 

 doomed to extinction. It was most abundant under the 

 Cedars and Pines by the borders of the sloughs, or amid 

 the thin swamp grasses, or in groves of Tamarack or peat- 

 bogsamongPitcher-plantsandCranberries. Few plantsofits 

 size have a more stately look, the stout stems, generally two 

 or three feet high, being wrapped in pale green, hairy leaves, 

 which rise so close to it as to nearly conceal the internodes, 

 and are so arranged as to have a spiral appearance. The 

 slipper is chubby, and wide in proportion to its length. 

 Its beautiful roseate tinge, the broad pink stripes within 

 shining through its texture, the setting in its perianth of 

 snowy white, give this queenly plant a peculiar charm. 

 The spreading parts form a kind of canopy beneath which 

 the slipper hangs. The flowers often occur in pairs on the 

 stem, but do not intrude on one another, being turned just 

 far enough away so as not to interfere, though still facing 

 the beholder. 



Chicago, III. J^- J- tllU. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



An Exhibition of Frl-it. — A three- days exhibition of 

 British-grown fruit was held the vi'eek ending September iSth, 

 at the Crystal Palace, under the auspices of the Royal Hor- 

 ticultural Society. There were one hundred and eighty 

 exhibitors, from distant parts of the country as well as from 

 the metropolis, and the number of entries in the competi- 

 tive classes was eighteen hundred. The quality of the fruit 

 shown was of an exceptionally high order, and this was spe- 

 cially true of the apples, which have done well this year in 

 most parts of the country. The President of the Society, 

 Sir Trevor Lawrence, in commenting upon the exhibition 

 on the opening day, said he believed that a finer collection 

 of hardy fruit had never been tabled in any exhibition in 

 the kingdom. He thought English fruit-growers had abun- 

 dantly proved that when the seasons are fairly favorable 

 hardy fruit could be produced here which could not be 

 beaten in any part of the world. Referring to the corre- 

 spondence which has appeared in the newspapers with 

 regard to fruit-drying, he said that nothing very special had 

 been done in this country in that direction, and that was 

 partly due to the fact that people did not combine readily 

 for such operations. His own opinion was that in a year 

 of glut such as the present it was exceedingly difficult to 

 market profitably ; even in the case of good samples it 

 would be a very great advantage if there were a possibility 

 of sending the surplus fruit to be dried, even if it were only 

 for domestic consumption. A great deal depended, not 

 only upon the growing of fruit, but in its careful handling 

 and careful marketing. No one would suppose the 

 magnificent fruit that was shown was a fair average 

 sample of the produce of the orchards from where it came. 



