CYPRIPEDIUM 9 



those who know the interest of its pedigree. It is a con- 

 necting link between Cypripedium and other orchids, in 

 the fact that it has three separate sepals, instead of having 

 the two under sepals joined in one, giving the characteristic 

 appearance of only two. 



The plant grows from eight to twelve inches in height 

 and has three or four dark green leaves and one little 

 fragrant blossom with narrow green-brown petals (Fig. i). 

 The lip is an oddly shaped pouch covered with converging 

 hairs at the mouth and mottled with streaking veins in 

 reddish purple. When it is hejd in a certain position the 

 blunt nose and the curving petals resemble the tiny horned 

 head of a ram. 



It is quite common in the orchids of the tropics and 

 conservatories to find horns, anthers, antennae, tails, ears 

 and other adjuncts, "enough," as one botanist said, "to 

 give a zoologist the agonies." "The Espiritu Santo seems 

 a white dove with expanded wings, and the droll Aceras 

 Anthropophora, dressed like an acrobat in skin-tunic of 

 green, swings as if gibbeted in company with some fifty 

 other little felons." The Ram's-head Cypripedium is the 

 only caricature among our native orchids; and so few have 

 seen it that no one knows much about its domestic life. 

 The broad, sterile stamen (A) lies over the stigma (C) and 

 shields the entrance, and the anthers (5) are tucked snugly 

 into the corners by the exits, as in the other members of the 

 family, but what insects go in and out and whether they are 

 abroad by day or night, no one has written. 



