NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 
to all the species. The plants of this family are remark- 
able alike for the singular beauty of their flowers and 
the peculiar arrangement of the internal organs. In the 
Linnean classification they were included, in common with 
all the Orchids, among the Gynandria. 
Whether we regard these charming flowers for the singu- 
larity of their form, the exquisite texture of their tissues, 
or the delicate blending of their colors, we must acknow- 
ledge them to be altogether lovely and worthy of our 
admiration. 
One of the rarest, and at the same time most beautiful 
and curious, of our native Orchids is the 
RAM’S-HEAD ORCHIS—Cypripedium arietinum (R-Br.), 
which has smooth glaucous green leaves and small purplish 
flowers bearing a close resemblance to a ram’s head, with 
the horns and ears and a tuft of wool on the top of the 
head. It is seldom over six inches in height; it grows in 
cold peat bogs, and flowers in June. Associated with it we 
find our most gorgeous representative of the family, the 
SHowy Lapy’s SLIPPER OR PINK-FLOWERED MOCCASIN 
PLant—Cypripedium spectabile (Swartz). 
(PLATE XIII) 
This grows chiefly in tamarack swamps and near forest 
creeks, where, in groups of several stems, it displays 
its pure blossoms among the rank and coarser herbage. 
The stem rises to the height of from eighteen inches to two 
feet. The leaves, which are large, ovate, many nerved and 
plaited, sheathing at the base, clothe the fleshy stem, which 
terminates in a single sharp-pointed bract above the flower. 
The flowers are terminal and generally solitary, although 
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