There are numerous kinds of Limnorchis; the lower leaves clasping or
sheathing the stem; the flowers mostly in spikes or racemes; sepals
nearly equal, petals mostly smaller than the sepals; lip spreading
or drooping, not toothed or lobed, with a spur. The Latin name means
"marsh-dweller."
[Sidenote: =Sierra Rein Orchis=
_Limnórchis leucostàchys_ (_Habenaria_)
=White
Summer
Cal., Oreg., Wash.=]
Often in some favorable corner of a marsh, near the woods, we may see
a dozen of these lovely plants, their robust leafy stalks sometimes as
much as four feet tall, rearing their delicate spires of bloom above
the lush grass. The long narrow leaves are bright-green and smooth
and the numerous, small, delicate blossoms, sprinkled thickly along
the stem, are pure white, each with a very long spur like a little
tail, each with a green bract at the base of its little pedicel, and
deliciously fragrant. There are several similar kinds, mostly with
green flowers; this is the handsomest and least rare.
There are many kinds of Cypripedium, with large, broad leaves and one
or several, large, drooping flowers, with two fertile anthers, with
short filaments, one on each side of the column below the stigma, and a
conspicuous, petal-like, sterile anther, arching over the stigma. They
are easily known by the curious lip, which is a large inflated sac,
suggesting both the common names, Lady's Slipper and Indian Moccasin,
and the Greek, meaning "foot of Venus."
[Sidenote: =Mountain Lady's Slipper=
_Cypripèdium montànum_
=Brown and white
Summer
Northwest=]
Beautiful and decorative, with a stout, hairy stem, one to two feet
tall and a few handsome flowers, rich and harmonious though not
brilliant in coloring, with a lip about an inch long, dull-white,
veined with purple, and brownish or purplish sepals and petals, very
long, narrow, and twisted. This grows in mountain woods and is found
around Yosemite. There is a picture in Miss Parsons's _Wild Flowers of
California_. _C. Califórnicum_ is similar, but with more flowers, the
sepals and petals greenish-yellow, the lip pinkish. _C. parviflòrum_
has a yellow lip and purplish sepals and grows in northern woods,
across the continent. None of these plants is common.
[Illustration: Sierra Rein Orchis--Limnorchis leucostachys.]
[Illustration]