THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 37 
larger species. The Pink and the Showy Lady’s Slippers have 
two of their sepals “‘ united into one, under the lip,” while both 
Yellow Lady’s Slippers have the united sepals, “cleft at the 
apex.” 
In Northern New England, one is sometimes fortunate 
enough to gather with the Yellow Lady’s Slippers, especially 
with the dwarf species, the Ram’s-head Lady’s Slipper, C. 
arietinum, the rarest species North America produces, and to 
me the most attractive; a small plant, perhaps a foot high, 
with dark green leaves and a fragrant, purplish-pink and 
white, veined lip, which has a hairy, triangular orifice and is 
small enough to be put into a child’s thimble. Far fetched as 
the popular name appears to be, the reader will notice if he 
holds the page containing the illustration of this flower in a cer- 
tain position that the protuberant lip has a slight resemblance 
to a nose, and that the curving petals—often decidedly curled— 
may be fancied to represent the animal’s horns. The sterile 
stamen is blunter than in the other species and the three 
sepals are separate. “This Lady’s Slipper,” says Meehan, “is 
a connecting link between Cypripedium and other genera of the 
Orchis family. In many Orchids the outer whorl of three (the 
calyx in other flowers) can be readily traced; but it is one of 
the peculiarities of Cypripedium to have apparently but two. 
As this union of the sepals was formerly considered one 
of the chief foundations of the genus Cypripedium, some bot- 
anists made this (Ram’s-head) into a distinct genus, on account 
of its three-leaved calyx, under the name of Arietinum Ameri- 
canum.”’ 
This little flower has been known to botanists only since 
about 1808, when it was discovered near. Montreal. It has been 
reported from the Saskatchawan Valley, from Minnesota and 
from Nebraska; in New England it is so rare, except in the 
extreme north, that many a collector who has it in an her- 
barium has never seen it growing, and it is so incon- 
