14 
Fig.4. The moccasin flower (Cypripedium acaule) 
is the largest orchid of all (flowers sometimes two and 
a half inches long) but no one seems to have had 
permanent success with it 
the showy lady’s slipper varies from white 
and blush to rosy purple, but it is typically 
white, veined with pink. 
This is the species that the millionaires 
want to naturalize by the thousands in their 
woods and it is to be hoped that they will 
succeed. Luckily it is one of the easiest to 
grow. It does particularly well in rhodo- 
dendron beds. A small plant that will 
flower the first year costs about thirty cents. 
It blooms in June, and bears from one to 
four flowers on a stalk. Although one 
specialist assures me that he has never seen 
it except in sphagnum I am positive that it 
will grow in ordinary woods. 
The moccasin flower (Cypripedium acaule) 
is inferior to the showy lady’s slipper 
in everything save size of blossom. Fig. 4 
Fig. 5. 
The best hardy orchid in the world, and 
fortunately one of the easiest to grow—the showy 
lady's slipper (Cypripedium spectabile). Flowers pink, 
veined purple, with white petals and sepals 
THE GAR DEN MAGAZINE 
shows the depression in the upper part of the 
lip which makes it look like a moccasin. 
The lip is pink, with darker veins and the 
sepals are greenish purple. It blooms 
toward the end of May and has only one 
flower. ‘The name acaule meaning ‘‘stem- 
less,”? confuses beginners. The flower does 
have a stalk, but it comes straight from the 
root and bears no leaves as a true stem does. 
This plant has only two leaves and they lie 
on the ground. Here again the superiority 
of the showy lady’s slipper is manifest for its 
stem is clothed with singularly beautiful 
foliage. 
Why no one has made a permanent suc- 
cess with the moccasin flower is a mystery. 
Try it in a well-drained rock fissure or sur- 
round it with pine needles. 
THE BEST YELLOW LADY’S SLIPPERS 
The large yellow lady’s slipper (Cypri- 
pedium pubescens) is one of the three best 
hardy orchids. See Fig. 1. It has a pale 
yellow lip 14 to 2 inches long, while that of 
the smaller species is only 4 to 1} inches. 
The small yellow lady’s slipper (C. 
parviflorum) almost atones for its shorter lip 
by its fragrance and brighter color. See 
Fig. 4. Miss Niles considers it the only 
fragrant lady’s slipper of the Atlantic coast. 
The beauty of both these species is 
greatly enhanced by the brown sepals and 
petals, especially the latter, which, though 
narrower than the sepals, are long, pendant 
and undulating. See Fig. 6. Both are woods- 
orchids, but are also found in bogs, and 
sometimes even in sphagnum. 
THE BEST WHITE LADY’S SLIPPERS 
The Eastern white lady’s slipper (C. 
candidum) is not quite as beautiful as the 
Rocky Mountain species, but it is hardier 
and is supposed to be the most permanent of 
all lady’s slippers and the most easily adapted 
to various conditions. 
The Rocky Mountain white lady’s slip- 
per (C. montanum) has a lip an inch long, 
which is slightly longer than those of the 
Eastern species. See Fig. 5. The sepals 
and petals are a good rich brown, while 
those of the Eastern species are not parti- 
cularly attractive, being greenish. This 
species survives the winter of Vermont pro- 
vided it is mulched. Both the white- 
flowered species are woods-orchids. 
OTHER TYPES OF ORCHID 
The other types of orchid are too com- 
plicated for vivid description but most of the 
important ones are pictured herewith. Any- 
one who intends to study hardy orchids 
should have ‘Our Native Orchids” by 
William Hamilton Gibson and “‘ Bog Trotting 
with Orchids” by Grace Greylock Niles. 
The former depicts every species; the latter 
is rich in colored plates. 
The rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera pu- 
bescens) is one of the most desirable hardy 
orchids in spite of its repellent name, and 
inconspicuous greenish white flowers. Fig. 
9 shows what is probably the largest colony 
on record. This patch was about fourteen 
feet long, two to four feet wide, contained 
1906 
AUGUST, 
Fig. 6. The small yellow lady’s slipper (Cypripedr- 
um parviflorum) almost atones for its smaller size by 
its fragrance and brighter color. Perhaps the only 
Eastern lady’s slipper that has a marked fragrance 
hundreds of plants and carpeted the forest 
floor at Eagle’s Mere, Pa., to the exclusion of 
everything else. It is impossible not to 
thrill at the first sight of the mosaic leaves 
that proclaim this orchid. ‘These leaves are 
all at the base of the plant, five to ten of 
them in a rosette and beautifully netted with 
white and green. I suspect that these 
leaves are not shed in winter. Certainly they 
are attractive for nine months in the year. 
The preferred habitat is coniferous woods, 
and in cultivating the species it is best to sur- 
round the plants with pine needles and even 
mix them with the soil for that seems to pre- 
vent the leaves from damping off, which 
they have been known to do even in hot 
weather. Why this dainty flower should be 
compared to a coarse weed like the plantain, 
Fig 7. Habenaria orficulata, showing the character- 
istic inflorescence of the genus Habenaria which has 
over 400 species. One of the numerous greenish white 
Kinds, which are not sufficiently showy for cultivation 
