1 
118 OCCASIONALLY FATAL. 
IRIS FAMILY—Ividaceae. 
THE BLUE FLAG—Iris versicolor L. 
Other Common Names: Wild Iris, Poison Flag, Water 
Flag, Fleur-de-lis. 
The Blue Flag may cause trouble if its rootstock is 
eaten, as sometimes happens, in mistake for that of the 
Sweet Flag, Acorus calamus L. Violent vomiting, purg- 
ing and. burning, and congestion of the intestinal tract 
follow its ingestion. 
The plant is erect, with thick, sword-shaped, bluish- 
green leaves and large flowers whose perianth of three 
large outer and three smaller, inner divisions is blue, 
changing to yellow towards the centre, and veined with 
purple. The pistil has three thin, petal-like stigmas, 
which arch closely over the stamens. 
ORCHID FAMILY—Orchidaceae. 
THE LADY-SLIPPER—Cypripedium spp. 
Other Common Names: Moceasin Flower, Cypripe- 
dium. 
The Lady-slippers, since they are among the most 
beautiful and conspicuous of our native Orchids, are 
much sought after for decorative purposes. 
As early as 1875 Dr. Babeock of Chicago came to the 
conclusion that annual attacks of skin-poisoning to which 
he was subject, were due, not, as he had supposed, to 
Poison Ivy, but to species of Lady-slipper. Since then 
his suspicion of the plant has been proved correct by 
other investigators. Dr. McDougal, in 1893, experimented 
with Cypripedium hirsutum, the Showy Lady-slipper, 
