THE PROCESSION OF THE FLOWERS 41 
for, though never seen off the American con- 
tinent, it stretches to the Pacific, and is found 
upon the Arctic coast. On these banks of 
Lake Quinsigamond it grows in great families, 
and should be gathered in masses and placed 
in a vase by itself; for it needs no relief from 
other flowers, its own soft leaves afford back- 
ground enough, and though the white variety 
rarely occurs, yet the varying tints of blue 
upon the same stalk are a perpetual gratifica- 
tion to the eye. I know not why shaded blues 
should be so beautiful in flowers, and yet 
avoided as distasteful in ladies’ fancy-work ; 
but it is a mystery like that which long repu- 
diated blue and green from all well-regulated 
costumes, while Nature yet evidently prefers 
it to any other combination in her wardrobe. 
Another constant ornament of the end of 
May is the large pink Lady’s Slipper, or Moc- 
cason Flower, the “Cypripedium not due till 
to-morrow,” which Emerson attributes to the 
note-book of Thoreau,—to-morrow, in these 
parts, meaning about the 2oth of May. It be- 
longs to the family of Orchids, a high-bred 
race, fastidious in habits, sensitive as to abodes. 
Of the ten species named as rarest among 
American endogenous plants by Dr. Gray, in 
his valuable essay on the statistics of our north- 
ern flora, all but one are Orchids. Even an 
