YELLOW LADY’S SLIPPERS.
_Cypripedium parviflorum and Cypripedium pubescens._
“And golden slippers meet for Fairies’ feet.”
THIS ornamental family are remarkable alike for the singular beauty of
their flowers, and the peculiar arrangement of the internal organs. In
the Linnæan classification they were included in common, with all the
Orchis tribe, in the class Gynandria, but in the Natural Order of
Jussieu, which we have followed, the “Lady’s Slipper” (_Cypripedium_),
forms one of the sub-orders in the general Order ORCHIDACEÆ.
Of the two species represented in our Artist’s group, the larger and
central flower is _Cypripedium pubescens_, the smaller, _C.
parviflorum_, or LESSER LADY’S SLIPPER. The latter is, perhaps, the more
elegant and graceful plant, and is also somewhat fragrant. The sepals
and petals are longer and more spiral, but the colouring of the lip is
not so rich and vivid as in the larger flower, _C. pubescens_.
The small flowered plant affects a moist soil, such as low wet meadows
and open swampy woods; while the larger species, better known by its
more familiar name Moccasin flower, loves the open woodlands and drier
plains; where, in the month of June, it may be 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, sometimes 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.
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