CYPRIPEDIUM 15 



stem from which the flower peers out above its long, narrow 

 bracts. 



The two sepals above and below the lip are longer than 

 the lip, and are covered with minute hairs; and the two 

 twisted petals on either side are still longer and narrower 

 than the sepals and are greenish in colour. 



The lip, a neat little white pouch (Fig. 2) less than an 

 inch long, is striped with purple inside and has a sign-post 

 at its entrance in the spotted spade-like shield of the sterile 

 stamen (Fig. 3, ^) that points invitingly inward and down 

 to the opening of the lip. 



In this species the sterile stamen has a short stalk, and 

 one who has followed out the theory of metamorphosis that 

 Goethe proposed in his youth, that the stamens as well as 

 all the parts of a flower are but metamorphosed leaves, can 

 see how this bright leaf-like stamen might roll up to form 

 two anther cells were it not doomed to sterility for the 

 sake of protecting the underlying stigma (Fig. 3, B) and 

 these two anther cells (C) that must always remain open on 

 the strength of a chance insect visitor. 



5. LARGE YELLOW LADy's-SLIPPER 



Cypripediiim hirsutum, Mill. (Plates VII. and VIII.) 



There are two yellow Cypripedia, so crisp and fresh 

 with their inflated pouches, so cool between their oval 

 clasping leaves, so sprightly on their tall leafy stems, that 

 they are to our American woods what the daffodil is, in the 



