CYPRIPEDIUM PUBESCENS. 
LARGE YELLOW MOCCASIN FLOWER. 
NATURAL ORDER, ORCHIDACE. 
CYPRIPEDIUM PUBESCENS, Willdenow.—Stem leafy, leaves broad-lanceolate, acuminate; sepals 
lanceolate; lip shorter than the linear, twisted petals, compressed laterally, convex both 
above and below; sterile stamen triangular, acute; plant pubescent. Stems usually sev- 
eral from the same root, one foot or more high. Leaves three to six inches long by two to 
three wide, many-veined, clasping at the base. Flower mostly solitary. Segments four, 
greenish with purple stripes and spots, the lower bifid, composed of two united sepals, the 
lateral two to three inches long by three lines wide, wavy and twisted. Lip moccasin- 
shaped, bright yellow, spotted inside, with a roundish aperture. (Wood's Class- Book of 
Botany. See also Gray’s Afanual of the Botany of the Northern United States, and 
Chapman’s Flora of the Southern United States.) 
HE large yellow is one of the best known of the Moc- 
a kA casin Flowers; and yet there are interesting facts con- 
nected with it that do not seem to be well known to botanists, 
or at least are not noted in the descriptions some of them give. 
These little facts, however, teach the student some interesting les- 
sons, and it is chiefly because Professor Wood has noted some 
of these that we have selected for our chapter the description 
from his work. For instance, we read in most accounts of our 
species that the flowers are bright yellow, that the petals are linear 
and twisted, and that the lateral sepals are of such a given width; 
and the student is liable to suppose that nature has an exact 
character for her species, whereas her limits are clastic, and we 
may almost always look for some variations from even the best 
written descriptions without any ground for imagining we have 
a new species because the plant in question and the most 
popular description do not exactly correspond. Our present 
illustration of the large yellow Moccasin Flower will be found 
