46 
YELLOW LADY’S SLIPPER. 
seen beside the gay Painted Cup (Castilleia coccinea ), the Blue Lupine 
(. L . perennis ), the larger White Trillium, and other lovely wild flowers, 
forming a charming contrast to their various colours and no less 
varied forms. 
The stem of the larger Moccasin flower is thick and leafy, each 
bright green, many-nerved leaf sheathing the flowers before they 
open. The flowers are from one to three in number; bent forward; 
drooping gracefully downwards. The golden sac-like lip is elegantly 
striped and spotted with ruby red; the twisted narrow petals, and 
sepals, two in number of each kind, are of a pale fawn colour, some¬ 
times veined and lined with a deeper shade. Like many others of 
the genus, the organs of the flower assume a singular and grotesque 
resemblance to the face of some animal. On lifting up the fleshy 
petal-like middle lobe which protects the stamens and pistil, the face 
of an Indian hound may be imagined; the stamens, which are two 
in number, situated one on either side of the sterile depressed 
central lobe, when the flower is mature, turn of a deep brown, and 
resemble two round eyes; the blunt stigma takes the form of the 
nose, while the sepals look like ears. There is something positively 
comical in the appearance of the ape-like face of C. spectabile , the 
beautiful showy Lady’s Slipper, the description of which will be 
found to face the plate in which it forms a prominent feature. 
The most beautiful of all the species is the “ Stemless Lady’s 
Slipper,” Cypripedium Acaule : of which we will treat at some future 
time. It bears removal to the garden if planted in a suitable 
situation ; but all these native flowers require attention to their 
peculiar habits and soil, or they will disappoint the expectation of 
the cultivator and end in failure. All wild flowers transplanted from 
the woods require shade, and bog plants both moisture and shade. 
