io Cypripedium pubescens. 



Whole plant pubescent, from twelve to eighteen inches high. Root 

 perennial, fleshy. Stem leafy, round. Leaves large, broad, plaited, re- 

 sembling in general structure those of other species of this natural 

 genus, sheathing the stem at the base, nearly the same colour on both 

 sides, and covered all over with a short, soft, dense pubescence. 

 Flowers very handsome and showy, generally solitary, though in 

 situations favourable to its luxuriance it is sometimes found with two 

 or three. Petals linear, siskin-green, with reddish spots, the two lateral 

 petals very long and spirally convoluted. Lower lip and nectary 

 bright gamboge-yellow. Grows on the sides of stony hills covered 

 with underwood and small trees, which admit the sun through their 

 leaves and branches to the ground, from Delaware to Canada. Flowers 

 in May and June. 



The name of the genus Cypripedium is derived from k»*£i«, Venus, 

 and W/ov, a shoe — Venus's shoe, or Lady's-slipper. This is the second 

 species of this curiously constructed genus figured in this work, and 

 like most of the other species which would be eagerly cultivated 

 for their beauty and singularity, it is transplanted with difficulty and 

 rarely flowers the succeeding season, without great care in ensuring 

 to it the same or similar soil as that in which it naturally grows. The 

 same obstacle occurs in the cultivation of most of the orchidean plants 

 of this country ; and this shyness of culture is particularly to be re- 

 gretted, since this tribe of plants furnishes us witli many very elegant 

 and curious species. 



