The ladies naturally desired that their choice should be ratified by the state legislature, and one of their number prepared a report of their doings, in a petition to that body, asking its approval. Whoever drew the petition named the flower chosen by the ladies as "Cypripedium Calceolous," a species which does not grow in Minnesota, but is purely of European production. The petition was presented to the senate on the fourth day of February, 1893. The journal of the senate shows the following record, which is found on page 167:
"Mr. Dean asked the unanimous consent to present a petition from the Women's Auxiliary to the World's Fair, relative to the adoption of a state flower and emblem, which was read.
"Mr. Dean offered the following concurrent resolution, and moved its adoption:
"'Be it resolved by the senate, the house of representatives concurring, that the wild Lady Slipper, or Moccasin Flower ('Cypripedium Calceolous'), be, and the same is hereby, designated and adopted as the state flower or emblem of the State of Minnesota,' which was adopted."
In the Legislative Manual of 1893 appears, on page 606, the following:
"On April 4, 1893 [should be February], a petition from the Women's Auxiliary to the World's Fair was presented to the senate, relative to the adoption of a state flower. By resolution of the senate, concurred in by the house (?), the Wild Lady Slipper, or Moccasin Flower (Cypripedium) was designated as the state flower or floral emblem of the State of Minnesota."
The word "Calceolous" means a little shoe or slipper; but, as I said before, the species so designated in botany is not indigenous to Minnesota, and is purely a foreigner. As we have in the course of our growth assimilated so many foreigners successfully, we will have no trouble in swallowing this small shoe, especially as the house did not concur in the resolution, and while the mistake will in no way militate against the progress or prosperity of Minnesota, it should be a warning to all committees and Western legislators to go slow when dealing with the dead languages.
We now have the whole body of cypripediums to choose from, and may reject the calceolous.
If the house of representatives ever concurred in the senate resolution, it left no trace of its action, either in its journal or published laws, that I have been able to find.