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CYPRIPEDIUM PARVIFLORUM 

rises six inches, the bracts as smooth and dark as 
the leaves. The tasteless nectar in the end of the 
long spur is plainly seen through its transparent 
case, but no insect can reach it, except by gnawing 
a hole half way down the spur, and most of them 
are opened in this way. The flowers have a sweet, 
though faint, fragrance, and as you look about, you 
feel that beauty is everywhere. 
The Mandrakes, Podophyllum, growing all over 
the steep banks, are in full bloom, their waxy white, 
fragrant flowers presented at all angles as you look 
through their crowded stems. Away through the 
forest, as far as the eye can reach, the earth is 
tinted with purple Phlox; the stream, not greatly 
shrunken, fills the air with its melody; thrushes and 
oven-birds are singing; all is fresh, and new and 
bright. 
True, the spring beauties—mere wreaths ot 
rose-tinted snow—have vanished. The Anemones 
are out of bloom and the Adder-tongues are rip- 
ening, but these little firstlings do not affect the 
general view. The Ferns are rising thick and fast 
above them; ripeness and decay are minute quan- 
tities as yet. The flowers of this Orchid, with their white lips and purple hoods, 
suggest the Mint family; the pollen masses, though welded to the column, are in 
the same place as a Mint's anthers. The little plant is not so showy as its name 
indicates, it is however, rarely delicate and beautiful. , 
Coming at the same season, or a little later, are Cypripediums, C. parvi- 
florum and C. acaule, the latter the largest flowered and boldest Orchid in our 
list; its stemless blossoms are often two feet from the ground. It chooses to 
grow on hard, dry soil, along with Oaks and Pines and Hem- 
locks, whose resinous scent is in the air, as you pass slipping 
upon the thick carpets of Sedge which cover the slopes. 
Now a glint of color comes through the brushwood, 
but it proves to be a clump of Cranesbill (Geranium), and 
again you are deceived by the fading Trilliums, T. grandi- 
florum, the flowers of which turn from white to red as they 
grow old. But, here it is at last, the stemless Cypripedium, 
C. acaule, two great leaves close to the earth, and a tall 
scape with a single flower. The long wavy petals are brown 
at their tips; the lip is a great pouch, dull red behind and 
white in front, though so thickly laced with crimson veins as 
to appear red; it is nearly scentless. The yellow species, C. 
parviflorum, is less particular as to its location. You will find 
it on hard, dry hillsides or upon islets of sphagnum amid the 
black waters of the marsh, or in the soft mold of rich woods. 
Its flowers’ are strongly scented, perhaps hardly fragrant. 
The Cypripediums are said to require insect aid to effect 
fertilization. The pouch of the yellow species has a broad 
opening whose infected edges hinder the visitor from 
returning. The lips of C. acaule are slit the whole length and 
close upon an insect with a spring. In both species the in- 
sect is supposed to creep through a narrow hole at the base 
of the lip where the pollen masses partly block the way, and 
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SPIRANTHES 
CERNUA 
