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Clintonia borealis. Lily Family.
Scape.—Five to eight inches high, sheathed at its base by the stalks of two to four large, oblong, conspicuous leaves. Flowers.—Greenish-yellow, rather large, rarely solitary. Perianth.—Of six sepals. Stamens.—Six, protruding. Pistil.—One, protruding. Fruit.—A blue berry.
PLATE XXXIX
Clintonia borealis.
When rambling through the cool, moist woods our attention is often attracted by patches of great dark, shining, leaves; and if it be late in the year we long to know the flower of which this rich foliage is the setting. To satisfy our curiosity we must return the following May or June, when we shall probably find that a slender scape rises from its midst bearing at its summit several bell-shaped flowers, which, without either high color or fragrance, are peculiarly charming. It is hard to understand why this beautiful plant has received no English name. As to its generic title we cannot but sympathize with Thoreau. “Gray should not have named it from the Governor of New York,” he complains; “what is he to the lovers of flowers in Massachusetts? If named after a man, it must be a man of flowers.... Name your canals and railroads after Clinton, if you please, but his name is not associated with flowers.”
C. umbellata is a more Southern species, with smaller white flowers, which are speckled with green or purplish dots.
Yellow Lady’s Slipper. Whip-poor-Will’s Shoe.
Cypripedium pubescens. Orchis Family (p. [17]).
Stem.—About two feet high, downy, leafy to the top, one to three-flowered. Leaves.—Alternate, broadly oval, many-nerved and plaited. Flowers.—Large, yellow. Perianth.—Two of the three brownish, elongated sepals united into one under the lip; the lateral petals linear, wavy-twisted, brownish; the pale yellow lip an inflated pouch. Stamens.—Two, the short filaments of each bearing a two-celled anther. Stigma.—Broad, obscurely three-lobed, moist and roughish.
The yellow lady’s slipper usually blossoms in May or June, a few days later than its pink sister, C. acaule. Regarding its favorite haunts, Mr. Baldwin[[3]] says: “Its preference is for maples, beeches, and particularly butternuts, and for sloping or hilly ground, and I always look with glad suspicion at a knoll covered with ferns, cohoshes, and trilliums, expecting to see a clump of this plant among them. Its sentinel-like habit of choosing ‘sightly places’ leads it to venture well up on mountain sides.”
The long, wavy, brownish petals give the flower an alert, startled look when surprised in its lonely hiding-places.