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162 BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS OF KASHMIR [Plate 57
Fig. 4. Epipogum tuberosum, Duthie.
A brown-coloured saprophyte, i-1 ft. high, hairless. Boot
tuberous. Stem usually swollen above the base and getting
thinner upwards, bearing a few membranous broad-based
bracts. Raceme laxly 3-5-flowered. Floral bract egg-lanceshaped,
long-pointed, entire, longer than the slenderly stalked
ovary, 5-nerved. Sepals and petals & in. long, all 3-nerved.
Lip without side lobes, slightly longer than the sepals, its
upper surface with 3 ridges. Spur as in the previous species,
but more slender and with a less rounded tip.
Flowers.
July to September.
Locality. Baltal ; Sind Valley, 6,000 ft. ; Liddar Valley,
8,000-9,000 ft.
Distribution. Apparently endemic in Kashmir.
CYPRIPEDIUM, Linn.
(Derived, from Cypris, the Greek name for Venus, and pedion,
diminutive of pede, shoe, alluding to the shape of the lip.)
Pig. 5. Cypripedium cordigerum, Don. Lady's Slipper.
Hairless or nearly so. Boot fibrous. Flowering stem
1-2 ft. high, stout or slender, leafy. Leaves several, spreading,
egg- or lance-shaped, 5 by 3 in., from nearly round to lanceshaped,
sharp- or long-pointed, membranous, plaited. Flower
solitary bract
; large, leaf-like. Sepals green, egg-lance-shaped,
lJ-2 in. long, long-pointed, the 2 lateral united and placed
under the lip, the third erect and above it. Petals green or
white, spreading, lance-shaped. Lip 1-li in. long, white,
often with a few purple spots outside and near the base,
stalkless, folded to form an oblong, inflated, open-mouthed
pouch. Ovary straight.
Flowers.
June.
Locality. Tosh Maidan, 11,000-12,000 ft., rare.
Distribution. W. Himalaya, from Hazara and Kashmir to
Nepal, 8,000-12,000 ft.