SHOWY LADY’S SLIPPER. 
61 
anthers are placed one on either side, under the two lobes; the 
central lobe is sterile, thick, fleshy, and bent down—in our species 
it is somewhat blunt and heart-shaped. The stigma is obscurely 
three-lobed. The root of the Lady’s Slipper is a bundle of white 
fleshy fibres. 
One of the remarkable characteristics of the flowers of this 
genus, and of many of the natural order to which it belongs, is 
the singular arrangement of the organs of the blossom to the face 
of some animal or insect. Thus the face of an Indian hound may 
be seen in the Golden-flowered Cyperipdium pubescens; that of a 
sheep or ram, with the horns and ears, in C. arietmum ; while our 
“ Showy Lady’s Slipper,” ((7. sptedabile,) displays the curious face 
and peering black eyes of the ape. 
One of the rarest and, at the same time, the most beautiful of 
these flowers, is the “Stemless Lady’s Slipper,” ( CAcaule ,) a 
figure of which will appear in our second volume. 
It is a matter of wonder and also of regret, that so few persons 
have taken the trouble to seek out and cultivate the beautiful native 
plants with which our country abounds, and which would fully reward 
them for their pains, as ornaments to the garden border, the 
shrubbery, the rookery, or the green-house. Our orchidaceous 
plants alone would be regarded by the foreign florist with great 
interest. 
A time will come when these rare productions of our soil will 
disappear from among us, and can be found only on those waste and 
desolate places where the foot of civilized man can hardly penetrate ; 
where the flowers of the wilderness flourish, bloom and decay 
Q 
