114 Rhodora [JUNE 
eastern section of the field is moister and produces a more luxuriant 
stand of grass and a larger number of the Spiranthes. In the thorough 
search it was discovered that these orchids also occurred in a nearby, 
but not contiguous, hay field belonging to Mr. Gardner. Mrs. 
Everett’s field has to the author’s certain knowledge been continuously 
cultivated for over fifty years, and probably much longer than that, 
for it has been in the possession of the same family for five generations. 
One would never think of inspecting such fields as these in search for 
orchids. It is of course their late blooming that allows them to exist 
here. After the hay has been cut, they send up their stalks and come 
into flower undisturbed about the first week of September. How the 
plants survive the occasional plowing is more of a mystery. The 
relative abundance of these plants in the three areas is brought out 
in the following table. 
Number of Number of ž 
: fp Number of 
Saisie plants in western | plants in eastern tata 
gs part of part of G a field 
Everett field. Everett field. score : 
S. vernalis. 1 44 38 
XS. intermedia. 9 1 
S. gracilis. 36 295 19 
In the eastern part of the Everett field both of the species S. gracilis 
and S. vernalis are not only more abundant than in the other localities, 
but they grow much closer together. Hence in this area a visiting 
bee would have a greater chance of making a mistake and, with the 
boat-shaped scale together with its attached pollinia of one species 
glued to his proboscis! he would occasionally fly to the lowest flower 
of a spike of the other species. Here he would climb up the spiral 
flowery staircase stopping at each landing to sip of the nectar and 
fertilize the stigma with the foreign pollen that would give rise to 
more plants of X Spiranthes neglecta Ames. 
Gray HERBARIUM. 
! For a description of the method of the cross fertilization of the flowers of this genus and of 
S. gracilis, see Darwin, Charles: Fertilization of Orchids by Insects, 2nd ed. 105-14 (1877): 
and Robertson, Charles: Flowers and insects. ix., Bot. Gaz. xvii. 51-2 (1893). 
