MOUNTAIN LADY'S SLIPPER.
Cypripedium montanum, Dougl. Orchis Family.
Stems.—Stout; a foot or two high; leafy. Leaves.—Four to six inches long; pointed. Flowers.—One to three; short pediceled. Sepals and petals.—Brownish; eighteen to thirty lines long; the two lower sepals united nearly to the apex. Sac.—An inch long; dull white, veined with purple. Anthers.—Two fertile (one on either side of the column); one sterile, four or five lines long, yellow, with purple spots longer than the stigma. Hab.—The mountains from Central California to the Columbia River.
The mountain lady's slipper is a rare plant with us, which affects cool, secluded spots in our mountain forests. The plants, of which two or three usually grow from a creeping rootstock, generally stand where some moisture seeps out. The leaves are ample and shapely, and the quaint flowers quiet and elegant in coloring.
The long, twisted sepals and petals and the oval sac give these blossoms the aspect of some floral daddy-long-legs or some weird brownie of the wood. We feel that we have fallen upon a rare day when we are fortunate enough to find these flowers, and we are reminded of Mr. Burroughs' lines: "How fastidious and exclusive is the Cypripedium!... It does not go in herds, like the commoner plants, but affects privacy and solitude. When I come upon it in my walks, I seem to be intruding upon some very private and exclusive company."
[MOUNTAIN LADY'S SLIPPER.—Cypripedium montanum.]
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In our Coast Ranges we may look for these blossoms in May.
We have but two or three species of Cypripedium. C. Californicum, Gray, is similar to C. montanum, but its blossoms have comparatively short greenish-yellow sepals and petals, and the sac is from white to pale rose-color. They have a more compact look, and lack the careless grace of those of the mountain lady's slipper. Their haunts are swamps in open woodlands in the northern part of the State, where they bloom in August and September, and are often found in the company of the California pitcher-plant.