ORCHID FAMILY. Orchidaceae. 
There are numerous kinds of Limnorchis; the lower 
leaves clasping or sheathing the stem; the flowers mostly in 
spikes or racemes; sepals nearly equal, petals mostly 
smaller than the sepals; lip spreading or drooping, not 
toothed or lobed, with a spur. The Latin name means 
““marsh-dweller.’’ 
Often in some favorable corner of a 
Sierra Rein Orchis marsh, near the woods, we may see a 
Limnérchis 
Pa TS dozen of these lovely plants, their robust 
(Zabenaria) leafy stalks sometimes as much as four 
White feet tall, rearing their delicate spires of 
Summer 
bloom above the lush grass. The long 
narrow leaves are bright-green and 
smooth and the numerous, small, delicate blossoms, 
sprinkled thickly along the stem, are pure white, each with 
a very long spur like a little tail, each with a green bract 
at the base of its little pedicel, and deliciously fragrant. 
There are several similar kinds, mostly with green flowers; 
this is the handsomest and least rare. 
There are many kinds of Cypripedium, with large, broad 
leaves and one or several, large, drooping flowers, with two 
fertile anthers, with short filaments, one on each side of 
the column below the stigma, and a conspicuous, petal- 
like, sterile anther, arching over the stigma. They are 
easily known by the curious lip, which is a large inflated 
sac, suggesting both the common names, Lady’s Slipper 
and Indian Moccasin, and the Greek, meaning “foot of 
Venus.” 
Cal., Oreg., Wash. 
Beautiful and decorative, with a stout, 
Y hairy stem, one to two feet tall and a few 
Slipper 4 : 
Dusrsieiiam handsome flowers, rich and harmonious 
monta num though not brilliant in coloring, with a 
Brown and white lip about an inch long, dull-white, veined 
cS with purple, and brownish or purplish 
Northwest 
sepals and petals, very long, narrow, and 
twisted. This grows in mountain woods and is found 
around Yosemite. There is a picture in Miss Parsons’s 
Wild Flowers of California. C. Califérnicum is similar, but 
with more flowers, the sepals and petals greenish-yellow, 
the lip pinkish. C. parviflorum has a yellow lip and 
purplish sepals and grows in northern woods, across the 
continent. None of these plants is common. 
78 
Mountain Lady’s 
