STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
old and strong plants will occasionally bear two or even 
. three blossoms on one stem. The unfolded buds of this 
species are most beautiful, having the appearance of slightly 
flattened globes of delicately-tinted rice-paper. 
The large sac-like inflated lip is slightly depressed in 
front, tinged with rosy pink, and striped. The pale thin 
petals and sepals, two of each, are whitish at first, but turn 
brown when the flower is more advanced towards maturity. 
The sepals may be distinguished from the petals, the 
former being longer than the latter and united at the 
back of the flower. The column on which the stamens are 
placed is three-lobed; the two anthers are placed one on 
either side, under the two lobes; the central lobe is sterile, 
thick, fleshy, and bent down, somewhat blunt and heart- 
shaped. The root of the Lady’s Slipper is a bundle of 
white fleshy fibres. 
One of the remarkable characteristics of the flowers of 
this genus, and of many of the natural order to which it 
belongs, is the singular resemblance the organs of the 
blossom bear to the face of some animal or insect. Thus 
the face of an Indian hound may be seen in the Golden- 
flowered Cypripedium pubescens; that of a sheep or ram, 
with the horns and ears, in C. arictinum; while our 
“Showy Lady’s Slipper” displays the curious face and 
peering black eyes of an ape. 
A rarer species is the 
STEMLESs Lapy’s SLIPPER—Cypripedium acaule (Ait.). 
It differs from the former species by the sac, which is 
large and of a beautiful rose tint, exquisitely veined with 
deeper red zigzag lines, not being closed but merely folded 
over in front; this is not observable until you examine it 
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