was the first botanist to discover a “musk-like odor” to the roots of
this plant, which I also have observed. The structure of this species
differs from all other known Cypripediums by producing six distinct parts
to its perianth, all the sepals being free to the base. There is in
the regular structure of Cypripediums a union of the two lower sepals,
usually showing a bifid condition at the apex, when not perfectly united,
as shown, if closely studied, in some of the accompanying illustrations.
The brown-pink sepals of the Ram’s-Head are all free, and, twisting
gracefully, remind one of the horns of a sheep’s or ram’s head, while
the apex of the labellum serves for the nose. The labellum is of a dull
purplish color, mottled or checked with white veins upon the crest of
the shoe. The apex or toe is of a dull brownish green, the orifice of
the labellum is triangular, filled with downy white hairs, and not large
enough to admit a baby’s finger-tip. The flower, however, varies, as does
also the plant, in size, according to the soil and the age of plant,
those found in damp cedar swamps being a foot or more in height, adorned
with large flowers, while those along the hillsides are from six to ten
inches high.
[Illustration: =The Ram’s-Head Lady’s Slipper.= (_Cypripedium arietinum._)
In different positions this flower suggests a ram’s head.]
This rare orchid is seldom, if ever, collected by botanists. It is one
of the smallest Moccasin-Flowers found in the Northern Atlantic Region.
The pigmy of the genus is _Cypripedium fasciculatum_, found under young
_Conifers_ in open woods in the swamp regions of northern California,
along the Pacific slope, exclusively west of the Continental Divide. The
_Cypripedia_ found in the Pacific Region are very different from those
of the Atlantic, _Cypripedium Californicum_, for instance, producing
a simple raceme bearing from three to twelve flowers, all emerging
from the axils of leafy bracts, the stem often growing four feet high.
The shoe-shaped flowers resemble miniature blossoms of our eastern
_Cypripedium reginæ_ in color and structure of sepals and petals.
The Ram’s-Head Cypripedium is certainly one of the rarest species on the
continent, and appears to be more plentiful, if this word can be used of
so scarce a flower, in the State of Vermont than in any other region that
has been reported in its continental range. It grows in low, damp marl
and peat swamps.
IV
The Stolen Moccasins
Woodlands, green and gay with dew,
Here, to-day, I pledge anew
All the love I gave to you.
ALICE CARY, _A Lesson_.
Whether the season is premature or backward, the Moccasin-Flowers always
appear at the same date, along with the Painted and Crimson Trilliums, in
the warm Glen of Comus. I am sure of finding these flowers unfolding, the
week previous to Decoration Day, from the 20th to the 28th of May.
On the 30th of May, four days after I had discovered the famous two
hundred Pink Moccasin buds on the hillside above the Glen of Comus, I
imagined now that they must be in full array, wearing the rich hues of
magenta and all the delicate tints of green, white, and pink. When once
fully unfolded they change color very rapidly. Late in the afternoon I
entered the edge of the Swamp of Oracles in District Fourteen, north of
the schoolhouse. My hound was my sole companion, and I heard him in the
distance making friends with children, whose voices came echoing from
the direction of my fairy-land of Moccasins. A foreboding that all its
beauty had been plundered took possession of me, for I knew that children
are instinctively selfish about flowers, and pluck every blossom they
see, even though they may throw them away afterward.
I picked my way carefully through the deeper swamp, around in the
opposite direction, avoiding thus the children whom I heard approaching
by way of the path, their arms laden, no doubt, with the blossoms I
sought a sight of. Later my worst surmise was confirmed. Not one Moccasin
hung on its stem to tell the tale of the invasion. Here and there were
strewn bruised leaves and stemless blossoms, prostrate on the hillside.
I was sorely disappointed, and I exclaimed aloud to the echoing wood
that it was a sin,—this stealing all the flowers and leaving none to
mature and develop their seed pods for the continuance of the species
to be enjoyed by future generations. “And if I ever get hold of these
youngsters,” I cried, “I’ll tell them why!”
The “youngsters” happened to be cousins of mine who had caught the orchid
mania from me, and what to them had always appeared ordinary Indian
Moccasins, or Lady’s Slippers, had now an added value and charm, since
they were understood to belong to the Orchid Family. The very hint that I
valued them caused strife among these children, eager to show me how many
they also could gather in a day. As such treasures, they gathered them,
hurrying homeward to tell me how many rare and beautiful orchids they had
found. They wondered if I had been near the jungle, as they saw Major,
my hound, during the afternoon. I admired their blossoms, now drooping
and wilted and sadly bruised, but I never told them just where I had
been, nor what I had missed. I had not the actual courage to scold them,
since I had set the example for them, but although I find many flowers, I
gather at random for mere pleasure very few. Indeed, there is no pleasure
in making desolate these choice and hidden retreats of Nature.
There are laws protecting the deer in the Green Mountains and the brook
trout in their spawning season, but as yet there is no legal or moral
protection to shield the flowering and fruiting season of rare flowers,
especially orchids, so scarce in northern New England. Some of our
orchids are already so rare, that in localities where, only a few years
ago, I found them abundant, to-day hardly a trace of them remains. They
have suffered from school children and commerce alike. People seek them
selfishly for pleasure and study, while the drug trade demands many
roots, and places fair value upon them as an inducement to collectors.
These roots are used for infusions, tinctures, and ointments,—a primitive
Indian custom and one which, if continued on the present scale, must in
time necessarily cease, through extinction of the rarer and most showy
species of our native orchids.
The country folk know the Lady’s Slippers of genus _Cypripedium_ as
the Nervine Family, valuing them as a nerve tonic. I have met a man
who makes a business of following trout streams, fishing and hunting
through the swamps, searching for frogs, and rare roots and herbs in
their season. He finds ready market for Ginseng, American Ipecacuanha,
Hellebore, or Indian Poke, from which is obtained a powerful cardiac
depressent,—_Veratrum viride_, and species of _Cypripedium_ also produce
our native drug American valerian, which takes the place of the European
drug, procured from _Valerian officinalis_. Snakeroot, Dogwood, and
various other plants afford excellent tonics. One can readily understand,
as Thomas Wentworth Higginson remarks, “that many of our rarest flowers
(in the vicinity of Boston) are being chased into the very recesses
of the Green and White Mountains. The relics of the Indian tribes are
supported by the Legislature at Martha’s Vineyard, while these precursors
of the Indians are dying unfriended away.”[12]
Where years ago the swamps were fairly rose-purple with waving blossoms
of the Grass Pink (_Limodorum tuberosum_) and Rose Pogonia or Snake-Mouth
(_Pogonia ophioglossoides_), this year I found so few that I could
readily count them. I discovered the possible secret of this extinction
in the fact that a native of Etchowog was offered by some florist or
gardener fifty cents a bulb or plant for all the specimens he could
secure. This was an inducement for the vandal, but Nature cannot restore
her species as fast as man can uproot them and devastate their haunts.
Whether this is the true cause of extinction of these species in Pownal
swamps I cannot ascertain beyond this inference; however, I am convinced
that a small fortune has disappeared, estimated on the lost plants at
fifty cents each.
Nearly all of the public schools are instructing the children in
drawing,—teaching them to study the wild flowers as they find each in its
season. Educators in all nature study urge the children to bring fresh
specimens, and thus unconsciously encourage the extinction of the rare
species of plant life in general. The children of each district school
thus hunting over a limited area, soon, with childish strife, collect
all the first and fairest flowers in their path. By the close study
necessary, however, for the child to produce a drawing of the flower and
its structural parts, a valuable lesson may in time be learned.
The story of fertilization, the necessity of the flower’s producing seeds
in order to continue its successive generations, will not be forgotten by
the true nature student. But if the teacher were able to designate the
rarer plants of her district, and teach her children the fatal results of
continually gathering their flowers, she might awaken in the minds of the
young people a higher reverence for the blossoms themselves, and scruples
against depriving generations of children to come of their beauty.
[Illustration: =The Pink Moccasin-Flower.= (_Cypripedium acaule._)
This is the only two-leaved _Cypripedium_ found in the Atlantic region.
It is closely allied with _Cypripedium guttatum_ of Alaska and with
_Cypripedium fasciculatum_ of the Pacific slope. It is the most common
species of this genus.]
There is hardly a child in the first grade in our schools who cannot tell
the story of the bee and the Moccasin-Flower, and why the wonderful lines
and dots of pink and gold are inside the downy shoe, instead of making
the outside the more showy.
The first Moccasin-Flower which I found in Aurora’s Bog in North Adams I
gave to Ray, a little lad of my acquaintance, and he happily and proudly
carried it to his teacher. When he came home, he could tell me that all
these inner decorations of pink and gold were dewy-tipped with sweets,
and were called “Honey Guides,” just to invite bees within. And that
although Master Bee goes through the front door of the Moccasin cottage,
he somehow finds it locked when he wishes to escape, so in his excitement
has to squeeze through the small back door next to the pollen-masses.
He carries forth some of the pollen, and thus helps to fertilize the
next blossom of this species, as he enters and rubs off the grains of
pollen on the adhesive lobes of the viscid stigma. Insects thus are not
permitted to rob the flowers of nectar and pollen without making a return
for the food which the flower yields them.
Were it not for the bees and moths and various flies, the seeds of
orchids would not mature, for it is a generally accepted fact that nearly
all species of this family, wherever found growing, depend upon insect
aid for fertilization and cross-fertilization. With the exception of one
or two North American species of genus _Habenaria_, all other native
species are aided by insects. These two species, _Habenaria hyperborea_
and _Habenaria clavellata_, were, according to both Gray and Darwin,
supposed regularly to fertilize themselves without aid of insects.
As the spikes of the Tall Green Orchis (_Habenaria hyperborea_) are
frequent in the Pownal swamps, in company with the Showy Lady’s Slipper,
I became interested in this plant, so independent of Master Bee or Moth.
Professor Asa Gray, in various papers on fertilization of our native
orchids, has said that they were all arranged for fertilization
by the aid of insects, and that very few were capable of unaided
self-fertilization. He tested several species, and proved that it might
occur by accident, but in general his two self-fertilized species of
_Habenaria_ were still an unsolved problem, as later developments have
proven in the case of his supposed self-fertilized species, _Habenaria
hyperborea_, which he asserted “habitually fertilized itself.” At least
this species, although it may be fully equipped for self-fertilization,
has been reported quite recently to be visited and fertilized by
mosquitoes, proving that not in all instances is it found “habitually
fertilizing” itself.[13]
In August, 1899, Professor C. A. Crandall, of the Agricultural College of
Colorado, with a party of tourists camped on Medicine Bow Range, in that
State, at an altitude of 10,200 feet, and observed abnormally developed
mosquitoes bearing pollen-grains, which resembled those of _Habenaria
hyperborea_; and so they proved to be, by subsequent experiments with
specimens of this orchis gathered from a bog near by their camp.[14]
Another species of this genus, which is almost identical with the Tall
Green Habenaria just mentioned, differs from it by bearing fragrant
white flowers not adjusted for self-fertilization. This beautiful plant,
_Habenaria dilatata_, grows sparingly in the choice haunts of the deeper
Bogs of Etchowog, seeking frequently the pools near cold springs, and
attracting numerous flies and moths by its rich perfumes, which one
scents long before he discovers the flowers themselves.
Darwin mentions ten self-fertilized species of orchids for the whole
world, and adds to that list ten more which were partially so, in case
the proper insects failed to visit these plants in season.
He again asserts: “In my examination of orchids, hardly any fact has
struck me so much as the endless diversities of the structure,—the
prodigality of resources,—for gaining the very same end, namely, the
fertilization of one flower by pollen from another plant. This fact is to
a large extent intelligible on the principle of natural selection.”[15]
Of the self-fertile species, Darwin remarks: “It deserves especial
attention that the flowers of all self-fertile species still retain
various structures which, it is impossible to doubt, are not adapted for
insuring cross-fertilization, though they are now rarely or never brought
into play. We may therefore conclude that all these plants are descended
from species or varieties which were formerly fertilized by insect
aid.”[16]
Darwin believed that, “bearing also in mind the larger number of species
in many parts of the world which from this same cause are seldom
impregnated, we are led to believe that the self-fertilized plants
formerly depended on the visits of insects for their fertilization, and
that, from such visits failing, they did not yield a sufficiency of seed
and were verging towards extinction. Under these circumstances, it is
probable that they were gradually modified, so as to become more or less
completely self-fertile; for it would manifestly be more advantageous
to a plant to produce self-fertilized seeds rather than none at all or
extremely few seeds.”[17]
Darwin questions: “Whether any species which is now never
cross-fertilized will be able to resist the evil effects of
long-continued self-fertilization, so as to survive for as long an
average period as the other species of the same genera which are
habitually cross-fertilized, cannot of course be told.... It is indeed
possible that these self-fertile species may revert in the course of time
to what was undoubtedly their pristine condition, and in this case their
various adaptations for cross-fertilization would be again brought into
action.”[18]
Indeed, the more this great scientist studied these strange flowers,
the more he became impressed, and “with ever-increasing force, that the
contrivances and beautiful adaptations slowly acquired through each
part occasionally varying in a slight degree but in many ways, with the
preservation of those variations which were beneficial to the organism
under complex and ever-varying conditions of life, transcend in an
incomparable manner the contrivances and adaptations which the most
fertile imagination of man could invent.”[19]
[Illustration: =The Tall White Northern Orchis= (_Habenaria dilatata_),
=Near Arethusa’s Spring, Bogs of Etchowog, Pownal, Vermont.=]
The extinction of species of orchids is due to causes inharmonious
with Nature, therefore, more than to the failure of the insects in
fertilization and cross-fertilization. Man and his bush-whack and
bog-hoe are doing more toward the extinction of our rarer species of all
plant-life in their continental range than any other natural element, in
the swampy, mountainous districts of the East, as well as in the open
swells on the prairies of the West.
The late Grant Allen expressed regret that the native Yellow Lady’s
Slipper of England, _Cypripedium calceolus_, “lingers in but two places,”
one of those stations being on “a single estate in Durham, where it is as
carefully preserved by its owner as if it were pheasants or fallow-deer.”
The wind, rains, and flowing streams, the birds, as well as migration and
immigration of the nations over the world, are ever unconscious bearers
of the seeds of our rare flowers and common dooryard weeds; yet for the
rarer species Nature is indebted to the insects for the important process
of cross-fertilization.
In country towns of New England, where summer resorts for tourists are
numerous, one finds youthful venders selling the roots of the Orchid
Family to “lovers of flowers,” and thus even the lovers of Nature aid in
the extinction of the treasures and wealth of her soil.
Species of _Cypripedium_ are indeed the most gorgeous among our native
orchids, and will be among the first of the family to become extinct,
since they do not reproduce seedlings abundantly, even in their most
choice haunts.
V
The Queen of the Indian Moccasin-Flowers
The rounded world is fair to see,
Nine times folded in mystery;
Though baffled seers cannot impart
The secret of its laboring heart,
Throb thine with Nature’s throbbing breast,
And all is clear from east to west.
EMERSON, _Nature_.
Between May 30th and June 8th, I made short excursions to the Bog of
Oracles above the Glen of Comus. On the latter date I found my first
blossoms of the season, of the Showy Queen of the Moccasin-Flowers
(_Cypripedium reginæ_), the white sepals and petals standing fully
unfurled, but still lacking the rich magenta-pink on the crest of the
slippers which another week’s time would give them. One feature this
season, among these plants, was the unusual number of two buds on a
single scape. While a single blossom is generally found on a stalk, I
discovered now that nearly every other stem bore two buds.
At the same time and in the same place, along the edges of decaying logs
on the borders of Ball Brook, grew the spikes of the Tall Green Orchis
(_Habenaria hyperborea_). Its greenish-yellow color is conspicuously
different from the tones of its distant relative, the showy,
white-petaled queen of this swamp. Another spike similar to that of the
Tall Green Orchis, but short and smaller in every way, stood near. It was
not so tall and coarse as its sister species, and may have been a stray
specimen of the Tall White Habenaria (_Habenaria dilatata_). These two
species are peculiar in appearance, and many inexperienced bog-hunters
would pass them by as weeds, and homely weeds at that.
Upon closer scrutiny, the peculiar twisted seed-pods of these flowers
suggest a rarity. The name _Habenaria_ signifies “a rein or thong,”
derived from the shape of the labellum in some species of this genus.
They are often also called “Rein-Orchises.”
On June 10th I drove into the Chalk Pond region, on the “Witch Hollow,”
or Gulf Road leading to the Centre-of-the-Town; and hitching old Bonny,
took a circle around the peat and marl meadows, searching for signs of
the Showy Orchis (_Orchis spectabilis_), a species of a sister genus of
Habenaria. The Showy Orchis is due here about May 25th, the date on which
the early Moccasin-Flowers awaken.
Four species of this genus unfold upon almost the same day. The
Ram’s-Head Cypripedium should bloom first, according to general reports
of botanists, the Pink Acaule immediately follows, and the Larger Yellow
Moccasins, and, at the same time, the Small Yellow Fragrant Slippers
unlace their beautiful twisting petals. The Showy Orchis is supposed to
be the first orchid of the spring to blossom in New England.
[Illustration: =The Showy Orchis.= (_Orchis spectabilis._)
The first orchid of the spring, found near the rocky borders of
Thompson’s Brook, East Pownal, Vermont.]
I discovered nothing in the Chalk Pond meadows, however, save that it
was one of the most charming little corners in the town, showing deep
erosions about its terraced basin, proving that the ice-currents of the
past flowed through these gulfs with terrible force.
I have found the Large Yellow Moccasin-Flower growing in close
relationship with the dwarf fragrant species (_Cypripedium parviflorum_),
in the Swamp of Oracles, in District Fourteen, about May 25th; while
they appear later in the upland woods,—from June 6th until June 25th.
They grow, as will be observed, along high, rocky hillsides as well
as in damp, sphagnous marshes. The upland species are often found in
open clearings on hillsides, among the dead brushwood heaps, where grow
the Maiden-Hair and Christmas Ferns. Often they are in full sight, but
sometimes they are hidden under small hazel-nut bushes, amid sapling
white birches.
There seem to be three different forms of the Yellow Cypripediums,
although there are but _two_ accepted distinct North American
species north of Mexico; these appear also to intergrade frequently.
Close association of habitat has probably something to do with this
cross-fertilization of the two species.
Finding the two marsh plants, _Cypripedium hirsutum_ and _Cypripedium
parviflorum_, growing side by side in the Swamp of Oracles, I observed
a marked intergrading,—the larger species, _Cypripedium hirsutum_,
producing variegated sepals and petals, or possibly now and then a
brown-pink petal or sepal, imitating the type species of the smaller
Moccasin-Flower. Both species were fragrant in a slight degree,
_Cypripedium parviflorum_ being, of course, the more fragrant of the two.
There is an European Yellow Cypripedium (_Cypripedium calceolus_)
which is almost identical with the smaller species of North America,
_Cypripedium parviflorum_. As early as 1760, _Cypripedium calceolus_
was described and illustrated in color in Philip Miller’s _Figures of
Plants_. Linnæus, 1740, gave the European yellow species the present
generic and specific designation. Any history relating to that species
of Lady’s Slipper, as it was first known in Europe by Dodoens as early
as 1616 under the title of _Calceolus Marianus_, will also pertain to
the history of the two closely allied Yellow Cypripediums found in North
America.
The common English name “Lady’s Slipper” arose from the Latin _Marianus_,
referring to “Our Lady,” the Virgin Mary, while _Calceolus_ is the
Latin for _shoe_ or slipper. Linnæus, however, in 1740, being a devout
Lutheran, objected to this species being dedicated to the Mother of
Christ, and re-established the custom of dedicating the names of flowers
to gods and goddesses of classical mythology known before Christ. The
origin of the generic name _Cypripedium_ is from the two Greek words
Κύπρις, an ancient name for Venus, and πόδιον, a _sock_, _buskin_, or
slipper.
Venus, in classical literature, was also known as “Our Lady,” the “Divine
Mother” of the Romans, so that the common name has never in reality
changed since 1616, when it was first applied to these shoe-shaped
flowers of Europe, in honor of Mary, “Our Lady,” the “Divine Mother” of
all nations.
The Algonquin Indians, in their forests of Northeastern North America,
saw this same shoe-shape resemblance in these flowers, and called them
_Mawcahsun_ or _Makkasin-Flowers_, since they reminded them of little
Indian Moccasins. Thus arose the common name Indian Moccasin-Flowers
for all our native species of Cypripedium. Lady’s Slipper is distinctly
of European origin, while Moccasin-Flower is most appropriately
American, since this name was given by the first inhabitants of our
shores, as it were, in mythological days. May the name of the Indian’s
Moccasin-Flower pass down through the coming centuries in honor of a race
that will disappear long before these flowers, which they christened so
appropriately.