tubercle (or palate) of the
lip is a remarkable character." But he, too, has failed to note the
equally remarkable palate of the ragged orchid, just described, both
provisions having the same purpose, the insurance of an oblique approach
to the nectary. In _H. flava_ this "tubercle," instead of depending
from the throat, grows _upward_ from the lip, and, as we look at the
flower directly from the front, completely hides the opening to the
nectary, and an insect is compelled to insert its tongue on one side,
which direction causes it to pass directly beneath the pollen disc, as
in _H. lacera_, and with the same result.

[Illustration: Fig. 15]

Of all our native orchids, at least in the northeastern United States,
the Cypripedium, or Moccasin-Flower, is perhaps the general favorite,
and certainly the most widely known. This is readily accounted for not
only by its frequency, but by its conspicuousness. The term
"moccasin-flower" is applied more or less indiscriminately to all
species. The flower is also known as the ladies'-slipper, more
specifically Venus's-slipper--as warranted by its generic botanical
title--from a fancied resemblance in the form of the inflated lip, which
is characteristic of the genus. We may readily infer that the fair
goddess was not consulted at the christening.

[Illustration]

There are six native species of the cypripedium in this Eastern region,
varying in shape and in color--shades of white, yellow, crimson, and
pink. The mechanism of their cross-fertilization is the same in all,
with only slight modifications.

The most common of the group, the _C. acaule_, most widely known as the
moccasin-flower, whose large, nodding, pale crimson blooms we so
irresistibly associate with the cool hemlock woods, will afford a good
illustration.

The lip in all the cypripediums is more or less sac-like and inflated.
In the present species, _C. acaule_, however, we see a unique variation,
this portion of the flower being conspicuously bag-like, and cleft by a
fissure down its entire anterior face. In Fig. 16 is shown a front view
of the blossom, showing this fissure. The "column" (B) in the
cypripedium is very distinctive, and from the front view is very
non-committal. It is only as we see it in side section, or from beneath,
that we fully comprehend the disposition of stigma and pollen. Upon the
stalk of this column there appear from the front three lobes--two small
ones at the sides, each of which