CYPRIPEDIUM II 



pink pouch threaded with bright crimson veins and lined 

 on its upper inner surface with long white hairs (Plate II. 

 and Plate IV). This pouch is often two inches long, making 

 the largest flower of any of our native orchids. 



3. SHOWY LADY^S-SLIPPER 



Cypripedium regincB, Walt. (Plate V.) 



The glory of all the Cypripediums, in fact the glory of 

 the summer swamps of our Northern woods, is the Cypri- 

 pedium regince. Why call it the Showy Lady's-Slipper 

 when it is in truth a queen .? It has nothing of the gay and 

 gaudy eff"ect that the former name spectabile conveys, nor 

 was its English name album good, for it varies from a deep 

 pink purple streaked with white to pure white. It is too 

 regal for a common name, and Cypripedium regince is the 

 only title worthy of it. 



Through the dark shades of our Adirondack forests and 

 in wet woods from Nova Scotia to Georgia it rises on its 

 stout leafy stem, fully two feet high, bearing above its 

 broad-ribbed leaves one or two, and sometimes three or 

 even four lovely blossoms. 



In some parts of Maine there are whole swamps where 

 one may wade through the stately plants up to one's knees; 

 but such profusion is rare, and the novice who is just begin- 

 ning to know the typical bright green rounded leaves of the 

 orchids may think he is plunging into their Paradise when he 

 has found a bog, green with the stout, leafy young plants of 

 false hellebore. 



