74 CYPRIPEDIUM PUBESCENS,—LARGE YELLOW MOCCASIN FLOWER. 
to vary somewhat from many descriptions, and from some of 
the drawings of which there have been quite a number given 
during the past century. For instance, the sepals—which are 
the two external portions forming the upward and downward 
back portion of the flower—are scarcely wavy. nor are the two 
narrower portions (petals) in front, and on each side of the 
“moccasin” or lip ; again, the flower is not “ bright” yellow in our 
specimen, and there is a faint trace of white on the upper portion 
of the “foot.” The reader knows that all these parts of the 
flower were originally designed by nature to be ordinary green 
leaves, and that it was only by a subsequent change of plan that 
she altered them into sepals, petals, and other floral parts; and 
it is interesting to note that when she goes to work on this 
change of leaves to flowers, she generally carries along some 
peculiarities especially belonging to the leaves. Now in the 
usual forms of the large yellow Moccasin Flower which we 
meet with, we find the leaves very much undulated, botanically 
speaking, or, as we may Say, with wavy and twisted margins; 
and it is in the cases where they are the most waved that we 
have the greatest twisting of the floral segments. In our speci- 
men, where we see little twisting of these parts, we have cor- 
respondingly less waviness in the leaf margins. It is a very 
interesting example of the correspondence of character in the 
leaves, and in the floral parts which have been made from the 
leaves, though in so many other particulars they have been led 
to diverge from each other. ; 
The large yellow Moccasin Flower is very closely allied to the 
Cypripedium Calccolus of Europe, which gave the name of 
“Lady Slipper” to the family; and by this name the botanical 
Cypripedium was suggested to Linneus. Indeed, the earlier 
American botanists wrote of our plant as being the same, and 
as C Calceolus it is referred to in some of their writings. It 
may, therefore, lay claim to a share in whatever of popular his- 
tory relates to that species. In the past ages, when everything 
common was invested with religious associations, we find the 
